A Second Chance
by BewareTheDragon1
Summary: Ghost Magics AU - 1 Vincent has done a lot of things he isn't proud of. Embezzlement, stealing, and murder; among other things. Now, the ones he hated so much in death have given him a second chance at life. [Rated T for mild language and some blood and gore.]
1. Alive

As he slowly woke up, he felt three things.

Pain. Excruciating pain, numb now, and almost forgotten.

Anger. At his past, at his actions, at the world.

The table.

Wait, what?

He sat bolt upright. That was new. Well, saying it was new was a lie, but it had been forever since he last had a sense of touch.

Looking down at himself, he saw his usual purple uniform and black slacks, with his dress shoes on his feet.

Well this hallucination was odd.

He swung his feet off the table, staggering a bit as he readjusted to not having a heavy metal suit on.

As he stumbled towards the door, he caught sight of something yellow out of the corner of his eye. When he turned to look, it was gone.

Weird.

He reached the door and stared at it for a little bit, trying to remember how to use his fingers. Eventually he got the hang of it and managed to push the door open, nearly falling to the floor beyond.

This place didn't look anything like that crappy horror attraction. Come to that, he felt like something monumental had changed, but that was probably just his tired mind messing with him. Again.

As he limped through the halls, he saw that they were in perfect condition. Strange, he didn't remember being moved.

As he pondered the changes that had occurred, it hit him: he was alive again.

The next thing to hit him was the Puppet.

* * *

 **Hey everyone, this is my first fanfiction. I will be uploading more chapters later today.**

 **This will not completely follow the story of Five Nights at Freddy's, but it will go along similar lines**


	2. Mike

_June 19, 1983_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 1:15 P.M._

"So… Mr. Schmidt... you have no prior working experience?"

"No sir, this is my first job." Mike replied. He had tried getting jobs everywhere, but everyone wanted someone with working experience.

"I see…" The man behind the desk replied. "Well, we don't have anyone else who wants the job, so, uh, you're hired!"

"Thanks mister…?"

"Giles. Percy Giles. Ordinarily I would've taken this shift myself, but, uh, I'm kind of, um, disabled."

"Disabled how?" Mike hadn't seen any evidence to show that this man, who was head of staff, was disabled.

In response, Percy wheeled his chair out from behind his desk. "I'm paralyzed from the waist down. Most people tell me that I do well any way, but uh, I can't get around very quickly."

"Oh, I see." _Damn my insensitivity!_ Mike told himself silently. "When do I start?"

"The first night of your shift starts at twelve, so technically, you begin tomorrow" Percy replied with a chuckle.

"Ok then. Why do you have a night guard in the first place?" Mike asked. He knew about the five children that had gone missing last month, and the incident at Fredbear's, but he needed to hear it from the man himself.

"Th-there was an, um, incident. Last month. We, uh, don't want any repeats." Percy said nervously.

"I understand what you mean," Mike replied, giving the man mercy. He cursed his insensitivity again. "Guess I'll see you tonight then."

"One last thing." Percy reached under his desk and brought out a package. "Don't forget to wear your uniform. Purple's the only color management will allow, for some reason."

"Thanks Mr. Giles" Mike took the uniform and put it in his backpack.

"Please, just call me Percy."

"Thanks Percy" Mike said, and left to rest for his new job.

* * *

 _June 19, 1983_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 11:45 P.M._

Mike locked his bike to the bike rack outside and dashed inside. Having a broken watch can lead to believing you're much later than you actually are, but Mike couldn't afford to fix it.

As he entered the building he looked up at the clock. 11:45. Mike sighed in relief. He wasn't thirty minutes late as his watch would have him believe.

"Percy!" He called into the building. No response, guess Percy went home early.

Mike looked at the animatronics on the stage. Creepy things, old too. They reeked of something rotting. Mike didn't really have much fondness for these characters, but he needed the money, so he worked the job.

He proceeded to his office, stopping in front of pirate's cove. Foxy wasn't visible from here. A shame really, Foxy was one of his favorites. The mechanics just couldn't seem to fix him though. Every time they did, the fox just manifested another glitch, resulting in a near-permanent out of order status.

Mike looked back at the clock. 11:55. He had stopped for too long, and if he didn't get into the office, who knows what could happen.

As he reached his office, he heard the phone ringing. Wonder who that could be. He set the phone to speaker and listened.

"Hello, hello? Um, hey Mike, sorry I couldn't be there to greet you. I had to go home early. I wanted to let you know that the animatronics tend to wander a bit. They're… not exactly predictable. You're probably perfectly fine though. You have your doors and cameras if anything gets bad. Just remember we have a limited power bill, so don't have the doors closed for too long, or it might cut out. I gotta go, enjoy your new job at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza." And with that, the recording ended.

"Wait, WHAT!?" Mike said in astonishment. The animatronics _MOVED_? This was going to be fun.

Or, you know, terrifying.

* * *

 **The introduction of Percy A.K.A. Phone Guy!**


	3. Past and Present

_Present day_

He groaned as he slowly woke up. Déjà vu.

As he slowly sat up, he raised his hand to his head. Wow that doll had hit him hard.

He stopped in shock. His fingers were covered in flesh, not a green-yellow suit. He looked at both his hands. There was the scar he had from that time when he cut himself with a knife, right there on his right hand.

What the hell?

"Oh, he's awake. Again."

He turned his head quickly, there was that Puppet. He hated that thing. He hated it with a burning passion. He wanted to tear it apa-wait, did it just talk?

"You look kind of surprised. Not a shocker, really. Considering you were dead for the past sixteen years." The Puppet said in its monotone, gender neutral voice. "Don't panic, I'm not going to hurt you. That would be a waste of effort."

Not listening to the Puppet, the man fell back into unconsciousness.

* * *

 _June 20, 1983_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 2:00 A.M._

"Two o'clock and all's well." Mike muttered to himself. So far only the lavender rabbit had moved. What's his name…? Bonnie.

"Hey, who are you talking to?" Mike heard from the left. He turned so quickly he felt like he had whiplash, coming face to face with a red-eyed rabbit.

Needless to say, Mike screamed.

"Whoa, calm down, I'm not going to hurt y- and he passed out." Bonnie sighed. How come all the people freaked out whenever he showed up at their door?

"Hey Chica! We got a new guy!" Bonnie shouted at the top of his mechanical lungs.

Before long, both Bonnie and Chica were standing over Mike's unconscious body.

"Hey Bonnie… don't the guards usually try to lock us out?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Maybe they're scared of us."

"Aww nonsense," Bonnie said waving his hand, "We're not scary."

"They don't seem to know that."

Mike began to stir.

"He's waking up!" He heard a voice say. Odd, he didn't recognize that voice.

Mike's eyes shot open "Holy crap I fell asleep on the job!"

"Watch your language!" Chica said sternly "This is a kid's restaurant!"

Mike suddenly realized why he fell unconscious and scrambled to his feet. "Oh. My. God. The animatronics. Talk."

"Well of course we talk, Silly." Bonnie said with a chuckle, "how else would we perform during the day?"

"I'm sitting in my office, talking to a lavender bunny and a bright yellow chicken. Where did I go wrong…?" Mike said, resting his face in his hands.

"If you really think it's that bad, we can leave…" Chica said apologetically

"Why would we leave? We haven't gotten to know this guy yet!" Bonnie exclaimed.

"Bonnie! If he wants space, we should give him some space!"

"He should at least try to be friendly"

Mike chuckled, these two were like little kids.

"Hey, what's so funny new guy?" Bonnie asked.

"It's nothing… and my name is Mike."

"Nice to meet you Mikey!" Chica said cheerfully.

"Always nice to meet someone new!" Bonnie said with equal cheer.

Mike grinned. This wouldn't be nearly as bad as he originally thought.

* * *

 **So, in case you couldn't tell already, most of the early chapters will contain flashbacks. Don't worry, we'll get out of these eventually.**


	4. Vincent

_June 20, 1983_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 6:30 A.M._

Just like that, the shift was over. He had spent the whole night talking with Bonnie and Chica. More like him telling them all about himself. All things considered, it turned out much better than he had originally anticipated.

He had said his goodbyes to the animatronics and was fumbling with the lock on his bike when he heard a voice.

"Wow, the new guy survived."

Mike looked up to see the figure who was speaking. He was tall and slender, with odd grey eyes and jet black hair. Quite a contrast to Mike, who was of a slightly shorter height and was bulkier. Mike had brown hair and green eyes, and while his skin was fair, this man was just pale.

"Vincent Tollini. Head of security here at Fazbear's." the man said, waving a hand at his purple uniform and badge.

"Mike Schmidt." Mike replied and put out his hand.

Vincent shook his hand and smiled. "You must be fearless going into that place. Those animatronics are just creepy."

"Oh it's not that bad" Mike replied

Vincent raised an eyebrow "You're going back tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I kind of need the money."

Vincent shrugged. "I heard those things were dangerous, but hey. Whatever floats your boat." The man grinned. "In any case, I hope you enjoy your stay here at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

* * *

 _Present Day_

He woke with a start this time. At least it wasn't an identical wake up to the last two, but it was certainly less pleasant. He groaned just for good measure.

"He's awake."

"If you say that one more time I swear to God I will stab you." He muttered as he put his hand on his head. Right, back to life. Don't freak out this time.

"He's making threats. That's a good sign, shows that he's retained his mind." The monotone voice said from somewhere in the shadows.

"I wasn't kidding about the stabbing part."

"I brought you back to life."

"And you expect me to thank you for it? Thanks, I just needed to go back to a crappy life with an abusive family."

A different voice spoke from the direction he thought the door was in "Well, since it's been sixteen years, I doubt anyone remembers you"

He recognized that voice… but where…?

"Schmidt!?"

* * *

 **We get to meet the main character of our story.**


	5. Foxy

_June 22, 1983_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 12:30 A.M._

Mike sighed. The others had warned against this, but he was going to do it anyway.

He was going to go to Pirate's cove.

"Mike come on, reconsider. Foxy's really grumpy, and I don't think he'll want a visitor." Bonnie said next to him.

"Nope, gotta go meet the fox." Mike replied

"Aren't you not supposed to leave the office?" Chica asked him.

Blast. He hadn't thought about that.

"Nobody will know, the cameras don't record after twelve, that's why we have a night guard." Mike said.

"I guess so…" Chica said doubtfully.

"C'mon, how bad could it be?" with that, he walked out of the room towards pirate cove.

Bonnie and Chica looked at each other. He had no idea what was coming to him.

As Mike neared pirate cove he heard a faint humming.

"Hello, Foxy?"

The humming stopped.

"Foxy? I just want to talk."

"Go away"

"You've gotta be lonely in there" Mike said. "The kids hardly ever get to see you"

"I don't care" the fox said gruffly

"Foxy, please come out. You're my favorite."

Foxy poked his head out of the curtains. "Say what now?"

"I said that you're my favorite."

"Yeah, well…" Foxy stepped all the way out of pirate's cove, revealing extensive gashes on his torso. "I'm always the fan-favorite."

Mike was a bit confused. "Why aren't you using the whole pirate voice thing?"

"It gets old after a while." Foxy replied. He then look at Mike, suspicion in his eyes. "Wait a minute, what are you doing here after hours anyway?"

"Oh, I'm the new night guard. My name's Mike"

"Uh huh. And Mike, do you know a man, about your height, wears purple?"

"Purple's the color of all the guard uniforms…."

Foxy snorted "O'course the devil had all the other guards wear the same color…"

"What are you talking about Foxy?" Mike asked confused.

"Never ye mind that. Have ye met Freddy yet?"

"Not yet, he always seems to be… gone, any time I come in here." Mike said, still confused about where Foxy was going with this.

"Ye'll meet him soon enough, I suppose…" Foxy said. "And his brother too, unless I miss me guess…" he muttered.

"What was that?"

"Ah nothin', it isn't important."

* * *

 _Present day_

"Schmidt!?"

"How's it going Vince? Been a long time hasn't it?"

"Schmidt you bastard I'll rip your eyes out!" Vincent launched himself off the table, only to crash to the ground in an uncoordinated mess.

"Calm down Vincent, I'm probably the only reason you're alive." Mike said, reaching down to help the man up.

Vincent took the man's hand, and tugged downwards as hard as he could. Nothing happened.

"Aww c'mon Vince, you didn't think I'd fall for that trick did you?" Mike grinned.

Vincent grinned back. "Of course I didn't. That's why I'm doing this!" the man swung himself about, scything Mike's legs out from under him. As soon as Mike hit the floor, Vincent made a mad dash for the doorway, only to be knocked out by what felt like a steel bar hitting his forehead.

* * *

 **Vincent really hates Mike for some reason. In other news, Foxy's a sucker for his fans.**


	6. Golden

_June 24, 1983_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 3:00 A.M._

Two nights since he got Foxy to come out of his cove, and Freddy still hadn't shown up. Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy were all nice, and great fun to be around, but he still wanted to meet the bear whose face was on the sign.

"Mister Schmidt?"

Mike jumped at the deep voice coming from directly behind him, and whirled around.

"Oh god Freddy you scared the living daylights out of me."

"Forgive me Mister Schmidt, but I need your help." Freddy replied.

"Help with what?" Mike asked confused.

"Follow me."

Freddy lead him to the room designated as "backstage" although in all honesty it was more of a parts and service room anyway. What Mike saw inside was something he was not prepared for.

Just outside the line of sight of the cameras was a yellow Freddy suit with sounds emanating from it.

Before Mike could react the seemingly empty suit twitched and the head turned towards him. He ducked out of the room and stood with his back to the wall, panting.

"Mister Schmidt?" Freddy asked "Is everything alright?"

"I just… It's… What the…"

"Mister Schmidt, if you cannot handle this, you do not have to"

"No, no… I'm fine…" Mike slowed his breathing "I can handle it…"

Mike took a deep breath. "What exactly is it you want me to do?"

"Mister Schmidt, are you aware of what a spring-lock suit is?"

"Yes, yes I am. Why?" Mike asked.

"My brother is a spring-lock suit, a spring-Freddy, to be specific. I need you to undo the spring locks."

"Wait why?"

"There are a multitude of reasons why, but I will give you the important ones. First, he does not trust anyone over the age of twenty."

"And I'm sixteen."

"Exactly. Second, he is lonely, the spring locks keep him from moving around, they keep his endoskeleton permanently compressed against the suit. Lastly, because none of us have the ability to utilize the crank that can undo the spring locks."

"Okay then…" Mike took a steadying breath.

He entered the room, determined not be scared by the strange, boneless seeming animatronic. As he approached it he heard whispers with the voice of a child "please don't hurt me, please…"

"Shh... It's all right, I'm not going to hurt you…." Mike said soothingly as he slowly approached the suit. "I'm just here to undo the spring locks…"

Mike began to circle the suit, looking for the place where the crank would be used to tighten and loosen the spring locks. As he did so he heard more whispers "Please don't hurt me… I just want to go home… I just want to see mommy…"

"It's okay, I'm going to help you…" Mike was extremely unnerved by the strange whispers, but he kept calm, and eventually managed to unwind the spring locks.

With a sudden jolt of movement, the golden animatronic was standing. Then it was simply gone.

"This has to be the weirdest day ever…"

* * *

 _Present Day_

Take four. Let's see… wake up, try to kill Mike, get knocked unconscious, rinse and repeat.

"He's awake."

That damn doll. It spoiled his plan before he even had a chance to think about it.

"What do you want from me" he said, sitting up and swinging his legs off the table.

The Puppet frowned. "I for one would like to know what is wrong with you. You're brought back from the dead and your method of thanking the ones who do it involves trying to kill them."

"Well, I could list my problems one by one. I have ADHD, I have intense mood swings, I have an instinctive habit of stabbing people I don't like, and now I wake up with a creepy puppet watching me. In my position you would be quite notably ups-wait. Did you just move your face?"

"It's a part of the new business we're going to be starting." The Puppet replied.

"Wow, so first you practice necromancy, and now you give a marionette facial mobility. Creepy." Vincent said. "Anyways, what hit me?"

"I did."

"It felt like a steel bar."

"I'm aware."

* * *

 **In which we learn about the Puppet's personality, Vince's problems, and Golden Freddy.**


	7. Joy and Tragedy

_June 25, 1983_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 3:00 A.M._

"So let me get this straight, the building is full of sentient animatronics, and there's a yellow ghost bear that can teleport."

Freddy sighed. He knew what was coming next.

"How did this happen?!"

"I'll explain to the best of my ability." Freddy told the agitated night guard. "It happened about a month ago. We were perfectly normal children."

"What!?" Mike said confused.

"Mister Schmidt, please don't interrupt." Freddy said irritated. "As I was saying. We were normal children, celebrating someone's birthday, I cannot remember who. A man came up to us and asked us if we would like to see the backstage, and that there was a special prize in it for us. We made the lethal mistake of following him. We didn't get to see what he looked like, other than that he wore mostly purple. The night following our deaths, _it_ came. The Puppet. It taught us how to become a part of the suits that we were stuffed into. We had already lost most of our memories by the point it showed up, including our own names. It taught us how to speak words the voice box didn't have recorded. Then, it vanished."

"So you're telling me that a puppet taught you how to be animatronics?" Mike asked incredulously.

"It sounds odd, but it happened. Chica and Bonnie don't even remember our lives as humans, they just remember bits and pieces. Foxy and I both have a more complete story, and they are similar, but we cannot remember the killer's features or even our own names. Goldie, my brother… he may remember more than the rest of us, but we cannot know, as he does not talk much."

"This place just gets weirder and weirder…"

* * *

 _June 26, 1983_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 12:00 A.M._

"Alright guys, gather up!" Mike said.

"Why, exactly?" Foxy said.

"Movie night! We're going to go see a movie" Mike answered.

"Movie night!" Bonnie cheered.

"Mike, we can't exactly leave the pizzeria, people will stare, and we'll draw attention." Freddy said reasonably.

"Not at this hour, most people out and about right now are either drunk out of their minds, or too tired to take notice." Mike said. "And if anyone asks, you guys are just avid fans of the pizzeria."

"I don't really want to leave Goldie behind…" Chica said.

"We don't need to, his endoskeleton is activated now." Mike replied.

"Movie Night!" Bonnie cheered again.

"Fine, we can go out on a movie night. But we must be back well before six" Freddy said grudgingly.

* * *

 _June 26, 1983_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 8:00 A.M._

Mike was worried. He had barely gotten the animatronics back before six. But he was glad he managed to get Freddy to agree to the movie night, and he got to learn more about his mechanical co-workers.

For example, Foxy loved popcorn, despite being unable to eat the stuff. Chica was somewhat of a neat freak. Bonnie was happy with almost any outcome. Freddy liked to have fun, but was still a stickler for the rules. Lastly, Goldie finally spoke, his voice sounding like a distorted version of Freddy's.

Unfortunately, the good times weren't going to last, and not for the reason Mike expected.

As he was setting up to leave for the day, he heard a terrified shriek.

He dashed to the source of the sound, and to his horror, saw one of the day guard standing over the two spring suits and sobbing.

"No! No!" The guard fell to her knees, crying over the two suits, both of which were starting to leak blood.

Mike backed away in horror. He had to find Percy. Percy needed to know about this…

* * *

 **And here we have the reason the first location shut down.**


	8. 1987

_Present day_

"So WHY did you resurrect me, exactly?" Vincent asked the room's only other occupant, the Puppet.

"Mike is the one who should tell you this." The Puppet replied.

"Why do I need Schmidt to tell me?" Vincent asked, irritated.

"Because I'm the one who planned this out" Mike said from the room's doorway.

"Oh look! Mikey! I'm gonna stab you until you bleed out for what you did to me."

"Not really a likely occurrence, what with the Puppet being in this room and all."

Vincent grumbled. What a buzzkill, he could have the decency to act scared when he was threatened. "So what's your 'master plan' anyways?"

"I'm not sure I can tell you, but you should know that you are a vital part of it." Mike replied.

"Oh great, so I'm a vital part of this great plan of yours, but you won't even tell me what to do." Vincent threw his hands in the air.

"That's not what I said Vince, and you know it." Mike said "What I need you to do is atone for your crimes."

"Like I didn't do that when I got stuck in that rabbit suit…."

"You may think you have paid for your sins, but the others don't."

"Fine…" Vince sighed.

"Wait, what others?"

* * *

 _November 1, 1987_

 _10:00 A.M._

Mike sighed, he was running out of money already. He had spent his funds on a degree in mechanical engineering. Idealistic, but not practical.

He checked the newspaper. _Let's see if there are any job offerings… waiter, delivery guy, night guard, usher… mechanic wanted, that could pay nicely. Wait, night guard?_ Mike looked at the ad in question.

Grand Re-opening!

Mike stared in astonishment. They were bringing the place back? After the things that had happened there?

Should he take the job?

Well, couldn't hurt to try.

* * *

 _November 1, 1987_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 1:00 P.M._

Mike rode his bike up to the front of the pizzeria. The new location looked a lot different from the old one. The animatronics looked a lot different too. He sighed, the new designs for the stage trio looked disastrous. He couldn't tell whether Bonnie was a boy or a girl, Freddy just looked overweight, and Chica… well, the less said about that the better.

"Mike!"

Mike turned to see Vincent Tollini. The slender man looked more or less identical to the last time he had seen him.

"Hey Vince, how's it going?" Mike said with a grin on his face.

"You coming back to be our night guard?"

"Yup, saw the ad in the paper and thought that this place could use another experienced worker. I've gained a few more skills since last time too, including a degree in mechanical engineering."

"That's great, we might need a mechanic to help out if something happens during the day." Vincent said with a smile. "Of course, Percy will need to approve it first."

"Well, for now I just want to work on the night shift." Mike said with a shrug.

"You're hired." Came a voice back from the building.

Mike turned back around, seeing the wheel-chaired head of staff. "Percy!"

"Hey Mike. We kinda need a more, um, experienced night guard. The new animatronics are probably going to be glitchy, and, um, I need someone to monitor their behavior for a week so I can give new guards a heads up on what to expect." Percy sighed. "After what happened at the last location, I don't want to take any risks. The spring suits have been locked up in the back room of the old place, hopefully we can forget about those."

"Well, how can I sign up?" Mike asked enthusiastically.

"All you need is your uniform." Vincent informed him. "You do still have it, right?"

"Yup, brought it along for if I got hired."

"Good, see you later then." Percy said, then headed back indoors.

* * *

 **There are lots of "Wait what?"'s in these earlier chapters. Mostly because Vincent has an attention span of about five minutes.**


	9. Puppet

Mike sighed, Vincent had an even shorter attention span now than when he was Springtrap, and that was saying something.

"The other animatronics, Vincent." Mike said

"What, those scraps of metal? Why do I have to ask them for forgiveness?"

"They're your victims."

Vincent laughed. "Those crappy robots are my victims? What did I do, rewire them incorrectly?"

"They're not just robots. You should know that, especially considering how you died in the first place."

That sobered Vincent up. "The children, that's who you mean?"

Mike gave an affirmative nod. "They're not children any more Vince, they've grown up in the time they were animatronics."

"Oh great, just what I needed, a bunch of ghosts who've had however many years to hate me. And now I need to ask them for forgiveness" Vincent laughed. "This sounds like some sort of storybook scenario."

At this point the Puppet spoke up. "You may find this amusing, but I don't. You killed me too."

* * *

 _November 1, 1987_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 11:30 P.M._

Mike walked into the building, thankful that he had gotten a new watch while he still had money.

He looked around and sighed. _Guess the new place is a lot different from the old one_. He had taken a look around earlier, during business hours, and there were lots of things that worried him.

For starters, the original animatronics were locked up in the parts and service room, and they were in a condition that was, to say the least, poor.

Second, the animatronics were apparently prone to glitching. The new animatronics had facial recognition software, and while that wasn't a problem for Mike, who had a clean background, he knew that the bugs in the system would inevitably lead to problems.

Third, the new Foxy animatronic was constantly taken apart by the kids. He had tried to get them to stop, but by the time he could do anything, it was already a mess on the ground.

Last but not least, there was the fact that the new animatronics, apparently called the 'toys', had two new members with them. One of them was constantly locked up in a box, but the other was an unnerving child-like figure called "Balloon Boy".

Mike heard the clock chime twelve. Blast, he had spent too long reminiscing, better get to the office and see if Percy had left a message.

An hour later, he regretted his new job.

He had been forced to abandon the office. Almost immediately after twelve, he heard "Pop Goes the Weasel" and on the cameras there was a tall, stick-thin puppet. It got to his office, and started to chase him around.

"Can't we just talk about this?" Mike asked the puppet. No response. "Please? Umm… what did Freddy say your name was…? Puppet?"

The Puppet stopped chasing him for a moment, proof that it at least recognized its own name. Before Mike could capitalize on this pause, it was back after him.

Mike ducked inside the parts and service room and slammed the door shut behind him. "Guys? Are you still active?"

Mike heard some mechanical movement from deep in the shadows of the room. "Bonnie? Chica? Freddy? Foxy? Hello?"

The answer was far from what he expected. From his corner of the room Bonnie said, in a heavily distorted version of his ordinary cheerful voice "You left us Mike."

"Bonnie, I came back, I'm so sorry but the place shut down. I couldn't stay even if I tried!" Mike said, leaning against the door to hold the Puppet outside.

"You left us to rot Mike. You left us to _die_ " Bonnie said, sounding angry.

"Bonnie, please! I never wanted to leave! Now I've come back, as soon as I heard about this location!" Mike was starting to panic. If his old friends turned on him now, his only resort would be to brave the Puppet, and that thing was creepy.

"Well you won't be leaving now, right?" Bonnie asked, hope in his voice.

"Of course I won't leave!"

"Good. Saying anything else would be lying." With that, the rabbit launched its broken body across the room.


	10. Box

_Present Day_

"If you expect an apology, you are sorely mistaken." Vincent said to the Puppet.

"I don't expect you to apologize. I know you're a heartless murderer" The Puppet replied.

Vincent laughed "Glad you've got that straight. Fine Mike, I'll bite, what do I have to do in order to 'pay for my sins'"

Mike sighed, he knew Vincent wasn't going to like this part. "You need to prove to the animatronics that you're a changed man. You can't do that right now simply because they are all currently undergoing upgrades."

"Right. And what am I supposed to do in the mean time?"

Mike shook his head. Vince wasn't going to enjoy this. "You have a suit. You'll be one of the performers."

* * *

 _November 2, 1987_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 1:00 A.M._

Mike reacted quickly.

The instant Bonnie lunged at him, he pulled the door open, causing the lavender bunny to rocket into the Puppet, launching them both down the hallway.

Mike ran out of the parts and service room. There had to be some way to calm down the Puppet and to avoid Bonnie.

He ran back into the security office. C'mon door button door button…

…Hadn't Percy said there were no doors in the new location?

Cursing his stupidity, Mike climbed into one of the vents, hopefully the animatronics couldn't fit in here.

He was wrong. As he turned the corner of the vent, he heard a loud clanging sound behind him, as of something large and heavy climbing onto the vent.

Mike climbed out of the vent as quickly as he could and dashed out of the party room he had wound up in. He ran back to the mainstage area, and skidded to a halt.

All three of the animatronics that were on the stage when he got here were gone.

Mike racked his brain, and realized that he had ran past them all at least once in his panic to escape Bonnie and the Puppet.

Well, too late to wonder if they were dangerous.

Mike suddenly got an idea. What if he hid in the same box the Puppet came out of.

Climbing into the box, Mike told himself that this idea was either really clever, or incredibly stupid. He hoped it was the former.

After a while of waiting within the box, Mike checked his watch. 5:00 A.M. one hour left.

Then disaster struck.

Almost immediately after Mike checked his watch, the lid of the box opened, and a porcelain face with two white pinpricks of light for eyes stared down at him.

Mike got the feeling it was really, really mad.

Before Mike could so much as scream, the Puppet was extending a long, three fingered arm towards him.

In panic, Mike grabbed the nearest thing he could find and held it up protectively.

The Puppet stopped its forward movement, then tilted its head and looked at Mike.

Mike looked down at the object he had picked up. A music box? Mike began to wind it up experimentally.

The soft, tinkling tune of "My Grandfather's Clock" began to play.

The Puppet visibly calmed down, but continued to move towards Mike. Then, against all expectation, it ignored him and grabbed the music box instead.

Mike watched in amazement as the strange marionette sat down on the table with the music box cradled on its lap. He knew that Freddy liked Toreador March, and that Bonnie could play a multitude of songs on his guitar, but this was something else entirely. The strange entity seemed to be completely different while the music was playing.

Mike slowly climbed out of the box and stood in front of the Puppet.

"You know the others already?"

Mike was astonished it could even produce sound with its mouth gaping open. "Um, yeah."

"Then you know our secret."

"You mean the fact that you're all possessed?" Mike asked nervously.

"Then you do know. Just as well. I would have caught you before now if you hadn't brought it up." The Puppet made a sighing noise, a strange sound seeming more like the wind than anything else. "And then I would have nobody to wind up my music box for me…"

Before Mike could reply, the six o'clock jingle played, and the Puppet drifted back into its box, ready to begin a new day of prize giving.

* * *

 **The Puppet really likes that music box.**


	11. Bonnie

_Present Day_

"No way. Nuh uh. Nope. There is no chance in hell that I am getting back into that deathtrap." Vince said angrily.

"Vince, it has undergone extreme repairs, it hardly even looks like it did when we found you in it." At this Mike pointed to the back corner of the room, where the golden rabbit stood deactivated.

Vincent took a good look at it. The height was about the same as before, but that was one of the few features that was the same. It looked less like a suit and more like a humanoid rabbit, down to the joints being hidden and the ears looking lifelike. "Mike, I'm not going to climb back into that thing."

"We fixed the spring locks as well, now it's completely impossible for them to collapse while someone is inside. In addition, we've given it more articulation, and the inside is as comfortable as a soft bed." Mike continued, not seeming to hear Vincent's complaints.

"Mike, I literally said it twice now. I. Am. Not. Getting. Into. That. Trap." The pale man said, waving his hands for emphasis.

"You can't really do much else, you're stuck here until you are fully forgiven."

"Watch me." Vincent said, and walked out of the room

Vincent was seething. Mike must think he was crazy and idiotic. Get back into Springtrap? Not a chance.

He paused as he reached the glass doors of the building and looked at his reflection. Huh, his hair was white. Shame, he really liked it when it was midnight black. _Not important Vince, stay focused._ He told himself as he marched out of the building.

Less than thirty minutes later, a wheelchair rolled into the parts and service room, where Mike and the Puppet were working on the finishing touches of another animatronic.

"Mike, Vincent just left the building" Percy said from his mobile seat.

"He'll be back, don't worry." Mike told him, still focusing on the robot.

"I know, I'd just… hate for him to happen to anyone."

* * *

 _November 3, 1987_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 12:00 A.M._

Mike sat in his office checking the cameras as was his job. He was glad to hear that Percy had taken his advice and installed a music box, along with a remote method to wind it up. Hopefully that would keep the Puppet calm.

Mike checked on the parts and service room, and it felt like his heart had stopped.

Bonnie was gone.

Mike frantically checked every camera in the building. _Not on the main stage, not in the prize corner, kid's cove is empty save Toy Foxy…_ Mike looked up from his cameras.

Bonnie was right there.

Now that Mike had his office lights to look at him, he could see very clearly why Bonnie was so mad.

His face was missing, along with his left arm and patches all over the suit.

"Bonnie…" Mike said in a whisper. "What happened to you…?"

Bonnie's red eyes lit up. "You left us to d-decay, Mike. We've been replaced by a bunch of p-plastic numbskulls."

"Bonnie, I never wanted to leave." Mike said, nearing panic. The lavender rabbit was much more intimidating without the top half of his face.

"Well you're never going to leave us again. You're going to stay with us forever." Bonnie said, and reached towards Mike with his remaining hand.

Mike ducked under his desk and dashed past the rabbit, not caring that as he did so he had run past Toy Freddy. Fortunately for him, the plastic bear was docile, and didn't give chase or impede his flight.

Mike made a mad dash for the prize corner, hoping against all hope that the Puppet would be able to help him.

He didn't make it.

As he slowed at the corner from the hall to the main stage area, he felt something tug at the back of his uniform. He disregarded it and kept running, but immediately found his forward movement halted.

"Mike, d-don't run from me." Bonnie's voice came from behind him. "I'm your friend."

"Sorry Bonnie." Mike twisted and kicked himself away from the animatronic with all his strength.

 _Snap_

Mike fell to the ground and looked up in shock. Bonnie's right arm had fallen off now, and the rabbit was screaming in what Mike took to be pain.

"Bonnie I'm so sorry… I just…" Mike began as he slowly rose to his feet.

Bonnie didn't want to hear it, he stormed off.

Mike looked down at the ground, staring at the disconnected limb. He had never meant to break Bonnie… He just wanted to get to safety…

He sighed and picked up Bonnie's arm. Maybe he could put it back on and persuade the rabbit that he was going to be here of his own free will for as long as possible.

He checked all of the party rooms until he found Bonnie. The animatronic was sitting on the ground looking down, as if sulking.

"Bonnie…"

"Go away Mike." The lavender rabbit replied, not bothering to move his head.

"Bonnie I'm sorry."

"Leave me to rot. Like you did before."

"Bonnie, the place closed down. I just recently heard that it was up and running again…" Mike said apologetically. "I learned some things in the interim." Mike showed Bonnie the arm.

"How is showing me my severed arm going to help anything? I'm in constant pain Mike. It hurts so much."

"One of the things I learned was how to repair and maintain robots."

Bonnie looked up at him.

"So, after this week is over, I'm going to be the one who fixes you guys up." Mike finished with a smile.

For the first time since Mike arrived, Bonnie didn't seem so sad.


	12. Suit

_Present Day_

Twelve hours.

Twelve damn hours.

Vincent cursed himself. He felt like absolute crap. He had a headache, his whole body felt sore, and he had the feeling he had forgotten to grab something before leaving Mike and the Puppet in the dust.

To top it all off, he now craved a glass of coffee.

He _hated_ coffee.

Which was why he was currently sitting in an alleyway, clutching his head and moaning.

"I swear I didn't used to have migraines, why do I have migraines now…? What did I do to feel so cruddy?" Vincent mumbled, feeling sorry for himself.

"Alright old man, give us all your money and nobody gets hurt."

Vincent looked up from his moaning to see a trio of men wearing ski masks. Old man? He didn't have wrinkles, he knew that for a fact, he had seen his reflection in a window just half an hour ago. Guess they were confused about the hair.

"You deaf or something? Give us your money!"

The man took a knife out of his pocket and pointed it at Vincent.

"You messed with the wrong person…" Vincent said as he awkwardly climbed to his feet.

One of the men laughed "You must be drunk or something, as if you can take three of us simultaneously. Get a load of this drun-Oof!"

Vincent had punched the man in the stomach, and before the mugger's colleagues could react, he had forcibly disarmed the man with the knife and held it to the throat of the third member of the gang.

"I'm sorry, this is a bad day. So how about this: You bastards give _me_ all of _your_ money, and nobody gets killed."

The two who were not currently at knifepoint simply ran.

"Bunch of cowards…" Vincent muttered. "Alright get out of here, if I see you again I'll slit your throat and disembowel you."

The man just nodded his head and ran for dear life.

This was how, as he stumbled back into the pizzeria, he had a knife in his hand.

Vince's condition had gotten even worse at this point, his only thoughts were of getting to… something. He still couldn't remember what it was he needed.

He staggered down the hallways, banging his head on the doorframe as he collapsed into the parts and service room, where Mike and the Puppet were working on a golden animatronic.

"Told you he'd be back." Mike said to Percy, who was sitting in the corner of the room.

"Mike, he, um, has a knife." Percy said pointing.

"Before you ask, no, I didn't stab anyone. I wanted to, but I didn't. This knife belonged to the man who tried to stab me." Vincent said from his position face down on the floor. "What the hell did you do to me Schmidt?"

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about Vince. The Puppet said that it had precautions in place to keep you from leaving, but it never said what they were."

"Let me give them to you. I have a headache, my everything is sore, I felt a compelling need to come back here, and I'm craving _coffee_ " Vincent said this last word with contempt.

The Puppet spoke up at this point. "I bound you to the suit."

"You what?" Vincent said in confusion.

"You are spiritually bound to the Spring Bonnie suit. You cannot leave it for long periods of time. Leaving the city will cause an immediate and uncontrollable need to return to it. Leaving the pizzeria will cause a similar effect after twelve hours. Within the pizzeria, you don't even need to wear it. However, in order to solve your current issues, such as the headache and the soreness, you will need to wear the suit for about an hour." The Puppet paused. "Although I'm not sure about the coffee craving."

"Hell no. I can deal with a minor headache."

"The headache will persist until you enter the suit." The Puppet told him mildly.

"Did you forget that I spent - what was the number you gave me? – sixteen years in that god-forsaken suit? I am not getting into that thing."

"Then enjoy your headache. Once the symptoms start, they don't stop until you enter the suit."

Thirty minutes later, Vincent gave in.

"You swear this thing won't kill me?" Vincent asked Mike.

"Certain. I checked it out myself. The only way to undo the spring locks is the do so from within the suit, the lever to do so is inaccessible while someone is using it." Mike assured him.

"Well, you brought me back once, you'd better do it again if this backfires."

* * *

 **Our second chapter to be entirely in the present, the first one was chapter one.**


	13. Vix

_November 4, 1987_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 3:00 A.M._

"So let me get this straight. Foxy's lost in his own mind, and I'm the one who needs to bring him out? How am I supposed to do that?" Mike asked

"Mister Schmidt, it's not very complicated. Foxy loves his fans. He would do almost anything to make them happy, regardless of whether they are adult or child." Freddy said calmly.

Earlier that night both Freddy and Chica had activated. Fortunately for Mike, both had a calmer temperament, and - despite Chica trying to bite his head off at first due to confusion - they both appreciated that he had come back at all.

Foxy was another matter.

Foxy had activated all right, but not as himself. Not as the popcorn loving pirate that Mike knew and adored.

Foxy was just a machine right now.

According to Freddy, Mike was the only one who could fix it.

Mike followed Freddy into the parts and service room and stepped into the back area, where Foxy was stored. Golden Freddy stared at him lifelessly, only barely able to move due to having his endoskeleton removed entirely.

"Hey Goldie, hi Foxy." Mike said nervously.

"It is good to see you again Mike." The yellow bear replied. "Are you here to help with Foxy's… issue?"

"Yes I am. Freddy said that you were helping…?" Mike asked.

"I have telepathic abilities, in addition to teleportation and some telekinesis." The bear answered. "I will be helping to weaken Foxy's mental barriers so he can hear you speak."

"Okay then." Mike said, not really understanding. "Let's get this show on the road."

"Very well. I will begin now."

Mike didn't see or hear any changes, but he could feel a bizarre disturbance in the air, it seemed to be emanating from Goldie.

"Foxy?" Mike asked. "Foxy can you hear me?"

The fox didn't respond.

"Foxy? Buddy? It's Mike. Your biggest fan."

Still no response.

"Foxy, it's show time. We're counting on you buddy."

Nothing.

"Foxy… I miss you buddy."

The fox was as lifeless as ever.

Mike sighed sadly. "This isn't working. Goldie, you can stop now."

"Alright then Mike." The suit ceased its strange activity. "Shame we couldn't get him to wake up."

Mike sighed again. "Yeah… I'll miss him."

Mike turned to leave. "Bye Foxy."

As Mike began to move, something snatched his shoulder. Mike whipped around to see Foxy's yellow eyes open and looking around.

"Mike?"

* * *

 _November 5, 1987_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 12:00 A.M._

Mike settled in for another night of watching over the animatronics. Pulling up the camera, he noticed that the Toy animatronics were all missing from the show stage. Not really worrying, considering that up until now they were more or less just moving scenery.

Mike quickly wound up the music box to keep the Puppet happy. He had forgotten about it yesterday and the only reason he survived was because the Puppet thought he was a good person.

Mike looked up from the cameras and shined his light down the hallway to see Toy Foxy standing there, a bizarre look in its eyes. Mike couldn't tell if it was supposed to be male or female. The original Foxy was male, certainly, but this one had a color scheme that could only be described as feminine.

"Toy Foxy…?" Mike said, wondering if it would respond to its own name.

The animatronic's eyes refocused, then the eyes… _changed_. Originally a yellow color similar to Foxy's, the glass orbs that passed for animatronic eyes seemed to be missing, with only two pinpoints of light in otherwise empty sockets.

Then the fox lunged at him.

Mike ducked to the side, dodging its attack. Those teeth looked sharp, and this animatronic no longer looked like a child's toy.

Toy Foxy crashed into the wall and fell apart.

Mike stared in shock. Not only had this docile animatronic tried to attack him, but it had destroyed itself in the process.

Unfortunately for Mike, his night was about to get much, much worse.

Toy Foxy was little more than a pile of parts, but somehow, it was still moving. The parts that were still attached made it look like some sort of… mangle.

It sounded like it was crying.

"Are… are you alright?" Mike asked. It was his job to make sure the things didn't get damaged after all, he had to make sure the thing didn't fall apart on his shift.

To Mike's surprise, the animatronic answered, in a tear-filled voice "W-why are you taunting me?"

Mike was astounded. The animatronic sounded like a little girl. "I don't want to hurt you, you tried to attack me."

"Only b-because you're the one who-" She paused and sniffled "Who did it."

"The one who did what?" Mike said as he reached under his desk to grab his toolbox, stored there in case of breakdowns when he couldn't get to the parts and service.

"The one who r-reprogrammed the scanners, and the one w-who killed us."

Mike went cold. Another set of murders?

"I'm not the man who did that. All the security guards wear the color purple." He said as he began to put the broken fox back together.

"Why are y-you fixing m-me?" she sounded confused.

"My job is to make sure none of the animatronics get broken, and to fix it if it does. You broke, it was my fault, so I'm going to fix you."

Mike began his reparations on Toy Foxy. "I've always found the whole Toy 'name' thing to be irritating and unnecessary. Plus it makes you sound like a ripoff of the first four. What would you like to be called?"

"Vix."

* * *

 **The return of Freddy, Chica and Foxy! Also, those kids really did a number on poor Vix.**


	14. Discovery

_Present day_

As Vincent climbed into the Spring Bonnie suit, he noticed that his headache was lessening, along with his constant soreness. The pressing need to return had already faded entirely.

The coffee craving hadn't ended though, and that was the only reason Vincent even bothered to try getting into the suit.

Once the suit was sealed and he was able to move it around, Vincent felt… strange. It was as if something he was missing had been found. As if he had been incomplete before, and only now was he complete.

What kind of drugs had they given him?

Vincent blinked once.

He noticed that Mike and Percy were looking at him with dumbfounded expressions on their faces. The Puppet looked uninterested, but that was usually the case.

"What are you two looking at?" Vince asked irritated.

"You look so… alive." Mike said.

Vincent couldn't tell, but the ears on the top of the animatronic's head moved and turned towards sound, as if they were real. The face of the rabbit also moved to display Vincent's emotions, and when the man inside blinked, the eyelids of the animatronic flicked down and back up again. When Vincent had spoken, the mouth of the suit had opened and moved exactly like the sound was coming from the golden rabbit itself, rather than the person inside.

Vincent blinked again. Something was off, but he couldn't place it.

Then he realized. He wasn't seeing through the eyes of the suit.

He was seeing with the eyes of the suit.

* * *

 _November 5, 1987_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 1:00 A.M._

"Alright Vix, I gotta get you into parts and service in order to repair your joints." Mike told the white fox "Your current condition should be good enough to get you there without doing damage."

"O-okay mister" Vix seemed nervous. "Wh-what's your n-name?"

"I'm Mike. Resident night guard." Mike reached down and picked up the damaged animatronic. She was heavy, but not any heavier than the crates that Mike had been paid to move in the four years since the last time he was night guard. "Can you tell me more about the one who killed you?"

"I… Um…"

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

"N-no… you should know, if you're going to h-help us." Vix made a sound that Mike assumed was meant to be a calming breath.

"It happened y-yesterday. We were having a b-birthday party for m-my little brother. When the p-party was almost over, a m-man came up t-to us. H-he asked if we wanted to s-see a special char-" Vix broke off, sobbing.

"It's okay, it's okay." Mike said soothingly. "You don't have to tell me any more than you want to."

Mike had reached the parts and service room, and nudged the door open. The room seemed to be vacant. Guess the others had gone to roam around. "Goldie, you in here? I've brought a guest."

"Who's G-Goldie?" Vix asked.

Mike walked into the area that was set up for individual animatronic repairs. "Goldie, meet Vix, Vix, meet Goldie."

"A pleasure to meet you Vix. What brings you here Mike?" The possessed suit asked.

"Vix broke, so I'm going to be fixing her up."

"D-did that empty suit just t-talk?" Vix said in bewilderment.

"Well, considering that you are a haunted animatronic yourself, it would not be too far-fetched for a disembodied voice to be attached to an endoskeleton-less suit." Goldie said.

Mike set Vix down on the table and turned towards the boxes of spare parts. "Let's see, joint connectors, joint connectors…" Mike began to rummage through the boxes, causing a precariously perched Freddy head on top of a pile of boxes to fall, landing square on his head.

"M-Mike?! Where did you go?" Vix said, panicking

"What are you talking about, I'm right here." Mike took off the mask and rubbed his head. The thing was a bit heavier than he would have liked, but it hadn't really hurt.

"S-sorry, ever since the b-bad man messed with our f-facial recognition software, w-we can't distinguish between a m-masked human and an animatronic… and with h-humans, we can o-only see colors…" Vix sounded apologetic.

Mike was thoughtful. "So that's the reason you attacked me…" Mike found the piece he needed and grabbed the wrench "The older animatronics mentioned something about the killer having a purple uniform."

"Y-yes. I'm very, very sorry."

"It's all right Vix. It's not your fault." Mike said reassuringly as he started the repairs on the damaged animatronic. The room was quite dark, so he had to have his flashlight in one hand and work on Vix with the other.

"Mike?"

Mike jumped and turned the light towards the intruder, then sighed with relief. "Foxy, give me a little warning next time."

The animatronic fox didn't respond, it seemed to be shut down.

Mike frowned. "Foxy, are you all right?"

Motors audibly activated, and Foxy reactivated. "What happened?"

"Foxy, you shut down for a moment when I shined my light at you."

The pirate nodded. "Aye, that happens sometimes. Bright lights directly in our optical sensors can cause us to freeze and occasionally reset." Foxy rubbed the back of his head. "Unfortunately, it happens to me more often than the others. Part of the reason I was always 'out of order'"

Mike nodded. "Sorry about that buddy. What did you need?"

"I wanted ta ask ye if ye knew what was wrong with the new 'bots." Foxy said.

"Unfortunately, I do know. Vix here tried to attack me, but wound up smashing against the wall, so I'm fixing her up." Mike said and grinned. "I seem to have a habit of befriending the people trying to kill me."

"H-hello Foxy" Vix said meekly.

Mike finished up repairing Vix. "There we go, that ought to last you a while." Mike looked at the flashlight and the Freddy head. "If you will excuse me, I have some notes to make."

* * *

 **It's gonna take a while for Vincent to get used to his new life. We also get to learn how Percy learned to inform the night guard about the lights and the Freddy mask.**


	15. Pain

_Present Day_

Vincent was having a nervous breakdown.

"What the hell did you do to me?!" Vincent shouted.

"Vince, calm down!"

"Don't you tell me to calm down Schmidt! What kind of crazy crap did you and that masked doll do to me?!" Vince was grabbing his ears and trying to pull them out.

"Vincent stop! You'll damage the suit!" Mike was frantic.

"Damage the suit? Damage the _suit?!"_ Vincent was practically screaming. "I AM THE GODDAMN SUIT!"

"Vince calm down! I can't understand, what do you mean?"

"What part don't you understand!? I'm stuck back in this hellish thing!" Vince put his hands on his top and bottom jaws and began to pull them apart.

"Puppet! Stop him from killing himself!" Mike launched himself at the golden rabbit and tried to pull his arms away.

There was a loud crack and Vincent screamed.

* * *

 _November 6, 1987_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 12:00 A.M._

Mike was in trouble.

He was forced to sit in his office wearing the Freddy mask. That in and of itself was uncomfortable. The actual problem was much greater.

There were three animatronics in his room. The toy versions of Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica were entering the room from various directions. Unfortunately, that wasn't the worst part of the situation.

The music box was running down, and Mike could swear he heard "Pop Goes the Weasel" from the other room.

In other words, Mike was probably going to die.

He was taking it pretty well, all things considered.

Toy Chica's beak was missing, probably because the company who constructed the animatronics was extremely cheap.

"Pop Goes the Weasel" was getting rapidly louder

Mike gasped as the Puppet levitated into the room.

The floating Puppet looked around the room. "Mike. Why are you wearing a Freddy head?"

Mike could tell the puppet wasn't amused, although he wasn't certain how. "The toy animatronics are trying to kill me. Vix informed me that they can't tell the difference between a masked human and an animatronic."

The Puppet sighed. "Whatever works for you, I guess. I'll just get this and be out of your way then." The Puppet reached out to Mike's desk and grabbed the security tablet.

"Hey! That's mine!" Mike said

"I need it more than you right now." The Puppet floated out of the room with its finger on the screen. The sound of "My Grandfather's Clock" was barely audible from the other room.

Toy Chica had a confused look on her face. "Ben, Theo, why did the Puppet just call Freddy Mike?"

Toy Freddy, or as Toy Chica had called him, Theo, frowned. "I have no idea Tia. I'm just as confused as you are."

Toy Bonnie, or Ben, turned towards Mike. "You have any idea why Freddy?"

Mike swallowed nervously. "Nope. Why do you want to hurt the night guard anyway? He didn't do anything."

"Well, he's the same purple as the one who killed us. The night guard might be _Him_."

"You have my word that he isn't." Mike said, trying to get the three plastic robots to calm down.

Theo stirred uneasily. "Still, better safe than sorry. We'll be out of your hair Freddy." As he said this, the three animatronics left.

Mike sighed and took the mask off. That was a lot closer than he would've liked.

"Hi!"

Mike jumped and looked to his left. There was a small human-like animatronic crawling out of his left vent. "Oh. Hello there."

"Why're you purple?" The childlike figure asked.

Mike sighed. "A man messed with your facial recognition software. Now you can only see general colors."

"No, silly!" The child giggled. "Why are you purple instead of another color? Like blue?"

"Well, I have to wear my purple uniform while I work here. Otherwise nobody will know that I'm a security guard here." Mike paused. "What's your name little guy?"

"My name's Billy, but the others call me BB." BB giggled. "Vix told me about you! She thinks you're a really nice person! My sister doesn't like people much, but she likes you!"

"That would mean that you're the birthday boy from a couple days ago. How old are you now Billy?" Mike asked with a smile.

"I'm five now!"

"That's very good!" Mike said. "Hey, can you ask your sister to come see me? I need to talk to her."

"Okie-dokie!" The child turned towards the hallway and ran off on his stubby legs.

Before long, Mike heard a static noise from the main hallway. "Vix?" He shined his flashlight down the hallway, then gasped and got up to run towards Vix. The fox was in an even worse condition than the previous night when she had shattered against the wall.

"M-Mike… I'm h-hurting s-so much." Vix was crying as much as was possible for an animatronic.

"Shh… shh… it's okay, it's okay… I'll help you, I'll help you…" Mike said soothingly.

"Th-they t-tore me apart… a-and called me 'Mangle'" She was calming down now, that was good at least. "The d-day staff didn't even t-try to fix me this t-time."

Mike cradled her head in his hands. "It's okay, I'll protect you. I'll help you recover."

"There he is!" Mike turned to see Ben standing in his office.

* * *

 **Not a very happy chapter, but things will get better.**


	16. Explanations

_Present Day_

Vincent groaned and slowly woke up. His jaw hurt like hell and it felt like his ears had been pulled out.

He opened his eyes for a second, then closed them again, trying to go back to sleep.

His eyes snapped open.

He was still in the suit.

He was still in the _goddamn suit_.

Vincent took a look around. He was still in the parts and service room, but he was seated on the floor against the wall. Nobody was in the room with him, for once. He sighed and tried to push himself off the floor and into a standing position.

There was a hand mirror sitting on the table that Vince had woken up on… however many times it was. Guess Mike had wanted him to see his new appearance or something. No real reason to not see what he looked like while in the suit.

When he looked into the mirror, Vincent gasped, then rubbed his aching jaw.

His eyes were a brilliant turquoise. No, not his eyes, thinking like that would lead to disaster. The suit's eyes. The suit's eyes were turquoise. Vince had always wanted brightly colored eyes, but had settled for his naturally grey eyes simply because they were different from anyone else he knew.

The rest of his –no, not his, the suit's- face was moving as he felt emotions run through him. His ears hurt, but they were in good condition however, and they twitched and turned towards sound. The only part of him that looked hurt was his jaw, as the skin, or whatever, of the cheeks looked like it was healing, as if it had recently been torn or cut. That made sense, seeing as he had just torn his lower jaw off of his head before falling unconscious.

Why had it hurt so much? The only thing that had actually hurt other than damaging the suit had been when he had a headache. The Puppet's blows had knocked him out, and he had felt them, but they hadn't actually hurt much; but the time he had banged his head on the doorframe, and then the floor, hadn't hurt at all.

"Oh, you're awake. Admiring the appearance of your new suit?"

Vincent turned towards the doorway to see Mike and the Puppet entering the room.

"Schmidt, what the hell did you and that creepy puppet do to me?" Vincent said with a scowl.

"It's very simple. Since your soul is bound to the suit, it is not dissimilar to how the rest of us are haunting the animatronics. Your human body is alive within the suit, but your spirit is controlling the suit instead." The Puppet said, a bored look on its face.

"Alright then, explain the 'skin' and the fact that m- the suit's eyes look alive." Vincent said. "I thought you things couldn't feel pain."

"Mike and his friend are extremely good at technological matters. Ordinarily we could only feel pain if the endoskeleton was damaged, but Mike's friend has added senses to all of the animatronics. All of them will be able to smell, taste, and feel whenever they are activated. Pain is a necessary part of the sense of touch. In addition to these upgrades, all of them have artificial stomachs that can hold food and break it down into any components that are usable for electrical energy, although that which cannot be used in such a manner will need to be cleaned out. As for the skin and eyes, those are artificial, the eyes are glass with extremely detailed paint on them. The skin is magically constructed, and as such it acts just like human skin, healing after injury and regrowing fur if necessary."

"Geez, can you put it in a simpler form?" Vince said confused.

The Puppet sighed. "All of the animatronics are effectively living beings that can be turned on and off, and have no ability to grow weak or ill." It paused. "Yourself included. The artificial stomach folds against the inside of the suit along with the endoskeleton, and the taste sensors are disabled while a person is inside."

"Floating puppet say what?" Vincent said, still not understanding a word.

The Puppet sighed angrily.

"Magic!"

* * *

 _November 6, 1987_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 2:00 A.M._

Mike reached up to grab his mask, only to come to a shocking realization.

His mask was on his desk.

Mike carefully laid Vix's head back on the floor and rose to his feet, his hands palms out by his sides. "Your name is Ben, right? I'm Mike."

Ben blinked. "How do you know my name?"

"I've been sitting in the security office. Freddy was never in there." Mike said. "Sorry for tricking you, but I needed to bide my time until I could be sure you wouldn't, you know, kill me."

Ben laughed. "Well looks like you messed up purple man, I've got you now!" The blue rabbit started walking towards Mike.

"B-Ben no!" Vix said in horror. "You c-can't!"

"Sorry Vix, but this man has done so much evil to us. He's the reason we're stuck in these things, so I'm going to get us some revenge, even if you don't want to cause bloodshed." Ben said sadly.

"But he's n-not the killer!" Vix cried out. "H-he's the one who fixed me up l-last night! If he h-hadn't I would just be pieces on the f-floor!"

Ben paused. "He what?"

"The man who killed you was wearing a purple uniform, right? He showed up as purple? According to Freddy and Foxy, a man with similar attire killed them too. All the security guards have to wear the same uniform in order to make them recognizable as Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria employees." Mike said in explanation. "I was night guard at the last location too, that's why I'm the current night guard here." He paused. "In order to make sure it's safe for a new guard. After this week I'm going to be a day guard and engineer."

Ben scratched the back of his head. "Oh… That would explain a lot. Like, a lot a lot."

Mike relaxed. Things seemed to be going well, all things considered. He looked back at Vix. "Umm... I don't think I can fix you this time…."

"Then how am I s-supposed to g-get around?!" Vix cried in dismay. "I d-don't want to have to c-crawl all over the p-place!"

Mike thought for a moment, then got a brilliant idea. "You can't walk right?" he asked, to which Vix nodded.

"Then maybe you can climb…"

* * *

 **Longest chapter yet. Vincent's going to have to get used to these changes, as is poor Vix.**

 **For anyone wondering, there will be NO shipping in this. Not in the romantic sense at least. The relationship between Mike and Vix is more like a parent-child relationship, while the animatronics are all family. Vince just hates everyone.**

 **If you need a mental image, just imagine a large cruise ship with all of the main characters. Now imagine a little dinghy tied to it with Vince sitting in it screaming "I hate you all!"**

 **That about sums it up.**


	17. Magic

_Present Day_

"Magic." Vincent said in disbelief.

"Well of course. How else would you have come back to life?" The Puppet said calmly.

"I don't know, some sort of genetic recombobulator thing?"

The Puppet sighed in exasperation. "And _where_ would we get a device like that?"

"I dunno! The pizzeria had fully mobile animatronics before the '80s! I assume some sort of similar mechanical marvel could have occurred!" Vincent threw his hands in the air.

The Puppet rested its face in its hands. "Sometimes, I wonder if you actually pay attention. Your antics are among the most irritating things I've ever had the misfortune to deal with, and that's saying a lot, considering that I acted as a children's entertainer for the past thirty years…"

"Yeah, well, I try." Vincent said with a mischievous grin.

The Puppet looked up and glared at him. "You are the most self-centered, cruel, vile, backstabbing MONSTER!" The Puppet's normally emotionless voice growing angrier and louder as it spoke. "You bastard, I never should have brought you back you-"

"Calm down, Marionette." Mike said. "He's trying to get under your skin, the more you react the more he'll try to pester you."

"Ohh, Marionette. Normally Mikey just refers to you as Puppet. Guess I really irritated both of you."

Mike sighed in disappointment. "I thought that if we could bring you back you would be able to improve yourself. Guess I was wrong." Mike shook his head. "I'm really disappointed in you Vince."

Vincent would have normally felt great for causing such discomfort in another, especially the Puppet and Mike, the two he held responsible for his torture as Springtrap. However, ever since he had gotten into the Spring suit, he had felt… different. As if acting like he did in his former life was something to be ashamed of. But he still felt as if the suit made him complete. He wasn't proud of his actions, and he knew it was probably showing on his face. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have doubted you. Tell me about this magic of yours." He paused. "And tell me how to get this suit off."

* * *

 _November 7, 1987_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 4:00 A.M._

"Well done Vix!" Mike said encouragingly. Vix had had a surprisingly easy time climbing the walls, and was now hanging from the ceiling. After a couple falls, she was nervous, but glad that she was finally succeeding.

Astonishingly, once Mike had managed to get Ben on his side, the other toy animatronics had accepted him.

Tia was a bit vain, and tended to ramble and chatter. She wasn't too happy with her design either, but as an animatronic there was little she could do to change it. Theodore was a bit uptight, and he preferred to spend more time by himself than with the others, but he was generally polite and intelligent. Ben was easily excited, but also tended to jump at shadows. At the same time however, when he wasn't scared he tended to be confident and sure of himself. BB was a cheerful little fellow, but he could throw temper tantrums when he was upset. Fortunately, it was difficult to upset the little guy, meaning that he rarely reacted violently. Vix was sweet and kind, but extremely nervous and unsure of herself, but considering the pain she had gone through, Mike could easily understand that.

All in all, they acted like children between the age of nine and twelve, with the exception of BB, who was five.

The night had gone extremely well, especially considering that the toys and originals had hated each other at the start. Now they were getting along like siblings. Which is to say, with many fights and arguments, but not in hatred.

Mike was getting ready to pack up his stuff so that he could make room for the next night guard. Suddenly, he saw something in the corner of his eye. A figure so black that it looked like it was made out of shadows, with glowing white eyes and teeth. Mike whipped his head towards it, but before he could say or do anything, it was gone.

"Weird…" Mike said to himself as he got one final thing ready. A note for the new guard, with one sentence on it:

Speak to them.

* * *

 **That's the end of the Fnaf 2 location as far as the night shift goes, but we still have a few more things to look at before we leave the year 1987.**


	18. Bite

_Present Day_

Vincent was out of the suit and feeling more like his normally belligerent and ADHD self. It turned out that the suit was painfully easy to get out of from the inside. The suit didn't limit Vincent's flexibility in any way, as surprising as it was. This made it no problem to reach under his armpits and undo the latches that held the back of the torso on. Once that was undone, it wasn't difficult for the skinny man to just pull his arms out of the suit and push himself out.

The Puppet's explanation of magic was actually quite surprising to Vincent.

"Some very few people are born with a natural ability to do magic. Having magical potential has strange effects. One with the capacity for magic has the ability to see spirits in life, and to do the impossible in death. For example, reanimating the dead, conjuring ghosts, and giving life to an otherwise inanimate object are feats that I myself have seen occur that would otherwise be impossible." The Puppet paused. "One of which you did yourself."

"But I've never done magic, what the hell are you talking about?" Vincent asked confused.

"You called up the ghosts of the children who now inhabit the animatronics in order to send them after Mike. Funnily enough, there is a bizarre phenomenon that brings the magically gifted to all locations of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. You, me, Goldie, the brothers, Mike, and Jeremy are all magically capable individuals."

"The brothers?"

"You'll meet them eventually. But a word of advice when you do. Don't tell them anything they could potentially use against you. Those two are incorrigible pranksters who will use anything for a joke."

"And Jeremy?"

The Puppet looked surprised. "You should know him. After all, you indirectly caused his death."

* * *

 _November 14, 1987_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 1:00 P.M._

Today was the last day of the current location of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

Mike wasn't happy about it.

Not happy about it at all.

He had spent most of the day in the parts and service room, talking with the originals.

"I'm sorry guys. They're shutting the place down due to the incident last week." Mike said. "I'll be back whenever I can… it might not be for several years."

"We'll miss ye lad." Foxy said sadly. "If only ye could stay with us."

"I wish I could, but I can't" Mike said apologetically.

"Well, we could always stuff Mike into a suit." Bonnie said.

"Bonnie! We can't do that to poor Mikey!" Chica scolded.

"Goodbye Mister Schmidt. I hope we'll see you soon." Freddy said.

"Me too Freddy, me too…" Mike said as he stepped out of the parts and service room.

Mike sighed and started down the hallway. _Hope Jeremy's doing fine._

Jeremy Fitzgerald had joined the staff of the Pizzeria the day that Mike had been moved to the day shift. He was a fairly short guy, with freckles on his face and curly red hair. The reason Mike liked him was because he didn't let his size limit him. Jeremy had an attitude that made him seem like a bigger person. He was an adrenalin junkie as well, seeking out anything that promised a scare or a rush of excitement. The thing that set him apart was the fact that to top it all off, he was the owner of a large inheritance of money, several hundred million dollars' worth. He was barely at the employable age, but he had more money than Mike could ever hope to get. The part that surprised Mike the most was that Jeremy had a completely clean criminal record, and was a considerate and courteous individual.

When Jeremy had been moved to the day shift the day before, he had been replaced by Fritz Smith, a computer genius and fellow adrenalin junkie. Fritz had apparently been friends with Jeremy since the first grade. Fritz had gotten the job of night guard for a similar reason to Jeremy, in order to test the myth that the place had haunted animatronics. He was a medium height man with dark hair and blue eyes, as well as well-tanned skin. Fritz looked like a guy who did sports a lot, but surprisingly he rarely went outside, he was gifted with a marvelous physique.

Mike went to watch the last event of the pizzeria, a birthday party in Kid's Cove. He was worried about Vix, because she didn't like small children much, but Jeremy had told him he would keep an eye on the animatronic, and Mike trusted the ginger.

Mike entered the room to see Vix climbing up the wall unnoticed, Jeremy standing more or less directly between her and the children who were enjoying a birthday cake.

Vix reached the ceiling and turned her head to look at Jeremy below her. That's when Mike noticed.

Her eyes were nothing more than pinpricks of light.

"JEREMY!" Mike shouted in warning.

 _Crunch_

* * *

 **We finally get to see the infamous bite of '87. Poor Jeremy, he didn't deserve it.**


	19. Jeremy

_November 14, 1987_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 1:15_

 _Crunch_

 _Oh god Vix why…?_

Mike ran towards Jeremy, kneeling down next to him. Mike looked around. "You!" He points at one of the adults in the room, everyone else seemed shocked into immobility. "Call 911, let them know that someone's been badly injured."

There was someone talking on the edge of Mike's hearing. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" Mike looked at Vix, she was curled up as much as possible, her face hidden.

"Hang in there Jeremy…" Mike said, ripping a portion of Jeremy's uniform in order to make a makeshift bandage to stem the bleeding. "Why didn't you read my note…"

"What… note…?" Jeremy whispered.

Mike went cold. Someone had removed the note from the security office.

Five minutes later, the ambulance arrived.

"Well sir, you did amazing considering the circumstances. That bandage is the only reason that your friend survived." The emergency official said. "Do you know what happened?"

"One of the animatronics… glitched." Mike said. "They're programmed to recognize criminals and to alert the police, but someone must have messed with their systems."

"I see. Thank you sir. We'll do what we can to help him" The paramedic left.

Mike took a steadying breath. This was a disaster.

"Hey Mike."

Mike turned around to see Vincent standing there, a sad look on his face. "I'm really sorry your friend got hurt. I hope he'll be alright."

Mike sighed sadly. "Me too."

"I took the liberty of firing the man who tampered with the animatronics." Vince told him.

Mike's spirits rose…

"Fritz is no longer an employee here at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

…and fell.

"I see." Mike said, thinking. "What did you do with my notes?"

"Notes, Mike?" Vincent asked innocently. "Your desk was covered in scrap paper. I guess I threw them away along with the garbage."

Mike didn't trust Vincent, but he couldn't call the man out on it. "I see. Well, so much for that I guess. I'm going home now, my shift's over. Bye Vince…"

"Bye Michael."

* * *

 _November 20, 1987_

"Mister Schmidt?"

Mike had zoned out for a moment. He shook his head, trying to shake off the dark memories that plagued his mind.

Jeremy had been taken to the hospital and put on life support. Apparently he was so close to death that it took all of the best equipment in the hospital to keep him alive, and he was never going to make a full recovery. Mike had visited him and told him the truth about the animatronics while he slept, not knowing if Jeremy heard him or not.

Just today, Mike had received the terrible news.

The hospital had a power outage, and Jeremy had died as a result.

Mike didn't even know this had happened until just half an hour ago, when a lawyer had showed up to inform him that Jeremy was dead.

Jeremy's death wasn't the topic of the day, however.

Jeremy's will was.

Just hours before the power cut out, Jeremy had woken up, and in an hour of lucidity he had changed his will entirely.

He had given everything to Mike.

"Mister Schmidt? Is everything alright?"

"Sorry, just… thinking."

"I understand, it's a lot to take in. You just inherited seven hundred million dollars."

"Yeah… I've never really had much money."

"It's not just money, we need to discuss other conditions and assets."

"Conditions?"

"Yes sir. Mister Fitzgerald put a single condition on the money. It must be spent to buy the animatronics from the pizzeria where Mister Fitzgerald died. I don't understand why, but that is the condition."

"Okay then…"

"In addition, Mister Fitzgerald has left you the deed to a large plot in the middle of the city, and his family mansion."

"Why…?"

"I wish I understood, but onto other matters…"

Mike listened on in astonishment as he learned that Jeremy had left him all of the Fitzgerald property. After the lawyer left Mike sat there and thought for a while, then came to a sudden realization. Jeremy had wanted him to buy all the animatronics… which surely meant that he knew. Jeremy had heard him.

Mike rushed outside to his old bicycle and pedaled as fast as he could. He had to get to the pizzeria before they scrapped the toys.

Mike jumped off his bike and ran inside.

"Mike! What are you doing back here?"

"Percy, where's Mr. G?" Mike asked.

"Mike, why do you want to talk to the manager?" Percy asked in confusion.

"I want to buy the toys." Mike explained.

"You what?"

"The toy animatronics. I want to buy them." Mike elaborated.

"Mr. Schmidt. You want to buy the toy animatronics?" Mike whirled to see Mr. G walking out of his office.

"Yes sir."

"Well, we were going to scrap them anyways…" Mr. G mused "Perhaps we could sell them instead. That'll be fifty thousand, Mister Schmidt." Mr. G seemed positive that Mike couldn't afford that.

"Agreed. Thank you Mr. G" Mike said, pulling out his credit card.

Mr. G smirked and swiped the card. "They're all yours Schmidt. Enjoy your killer robots."

"By the way, Mr. G. I thought you should know that Jeremy died earlier today."

Mr. G didn't seem too upset about this fact.

"He left his entire fortune to me."

Mr. G's jaw dropped.

* * *

 **The end of our 1987 stories. We learn how Mike acquired the money to fund the new pizzeria.**

 **Mr. G was just a one-time thing. I couldn't think of a good name for the manager, so basically he's just here for Mike to buy the toys off of.**


	20. Doors

_Present Day_

"Oh, that kid Fitzgerald." Vince said. "Shame about him. Heard about the power outage a few days after."

"I only have one question for you Vince." Mike said. "Why did you tamper with the animatronics?"

"Fritz got fired for that, what makes you think I would do it?"

"Vince, stop lying." Mike said. "Fritz didn't touch the animatronics."

"Fine, you caught me" Vince grinned "I needed to find a way to prevent the animatronics from killing me, so I figured that ruining the facial recognition would make them get decommissioned before they could get a chance at me."

"That makes sense. Fritz had to do a lot of work on the toys in order to fix them up." Mike explained. "They were extremely confused when I moved them and turned them on. They thought I was someone else entirely because of your little trick."

"Wait. You stole the toy animatronics?!" Vince said in confusion.

"No, I bought them off of Mr. G. He was so surprised when I told him that Jeremy had left me his money; the cheapskate thought he was ripping me off when he sold me them. I actually would have bought them for almost twice as much." Mike chuckled. "The toys are offline right now, undergoing upgrades. But there is one more animatronic who's online." Mike pointed "He's actually right there."

Vincent looked around the room, for the first time actually noticing the animatronic that he had been sharing the room with. "You remade old Fredbear?"

The yellow bear suit was sitting slumped against the wall, his signature purple hat and bowtie given a new, clean look.

"Hey Goldie, wake up." Mike said.

Vince jumped as the animatronics eyes snapped open and it climbed to its feet. It was the same height as the Spring Bonnie suit, if the ears weren't counted. Goldie was heavier set than Spring Bonnie, and was considerably bulkier. The eyes were a deep blue, and just like Spring Bonnie the joints were more or less invisible. The biggest difference was in the fact that this suit was active without a person inside.

"Good morning Mike. Hello Puppet." The yellow bear said with his deep booming voice.

"Fredbear's back in business? Holy hell Mike, that's a surprise." Vincent said.

The bear looked at him. "Oh. Vincent."

"Sorry Goldie, Vince has been breaking things." Mike said. "Let me introduce you properly. Vince, Goldie. Goldie, Vince. Goldie doesn't really mind what you call him. Golden Freddy, Goldie, Fredbear, and Spring Freddy are all valid names." Mike paused. "Goldie, could you get Fritz and Percy real quick?"

"Sure thing Mike." The bear vanished.

Vincent's jaw dropped.

* * *

 _November 8, 1993_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 12:00 A.M._

Mike had finally found the new location of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. After six years, the place had opened back up, and it was back at the 1983 location.

After ten years, the old office felt like home.

Mike thought back to earlier that day.

"Hey Mike! What's up?" Vince had said cheerfully. Mike didn't trust him much anymore after what happened in '87.

"I'm looking for a job." Mike had replied.

"Why? You just inherited millions of dollars, why are you working in this place? You know we can only pay minimum wage, right?" Vince said confused.

"Love this old place, lots of memories." Mike had explained. "Hey, where's Percy?"

"Percy, um, couldn't be here. Today, I mean." Vince said nervously.

Mike hadn't trusted him to mean what he said, But Mike couldn't do anything about it.

Mike checked his cameras. 4:00 A.M. already? Bonnie was the only one who had left the stage, and that was to go into the supply closet.

There had been a message from Percy about the animatronics being glitchy, but Mike had ignored him for the most part, thinking himself safe.

Mike put down the camera and checked his left door light to see Bonnie standing just outside his door, eyes blank. "Bonnie…?"

Bonnie twitched, then screamed and charged towards Mike. Mike, reacting, slammed his hand on the door button, locking the lavender rabbit outside his door.

Mike took a steadying breath. This was going to be one _hell_ of a week.

* * *

 **Mike gets to see his old friends after six years.**

 **To answer your question Ridlius: While Jeremy was in a coma, Mike told him about the animatronics, how they were haunted and that they were children. Jeremy, being a nice guy, wanted to make sure that the children would not be killed a second time, so he ensured that Mike would protect them.**


	21. Shadows of the past

_Present Day_

They had moved into the main show room of the new location.

Turns out that having four humans, a large animatronic bear, and a floating puppet all in a room that was designed simply for animatronic repair was a bad idea.

"Mike, how the hell did you get Percy to come back? I thought he quit the previous location." Vince asked confused.

"Well, um, I didn't exactly quit. Mr. G fired me." Percy chuckled. "Turns out, having a heart attack on the job can lead to expulsion from your job. Especially when the job in question is likely to include sudden loud noises, creepy animatronics, and a likelihood of being stuffed into an animatronic suit." He paused. "No offense, Fredbear."

"None taken." The golden bear replied.

"Where are they…?" Mike muttered to himself, scanning the room. "No matter, they can get caught up later."

"Who are you talking about?" Vincent asked.

"It's not important, you'll meet them soon enough." Mike said, waving the question off. "For now, get to know your new co-workers. I'm fully aware you already know Percy, probably better even than I do, but Goldie and Fritz don't know you personally." With that, Mike walked out of the room, searching for something.

"Well, my name's Vincent. I like long walks on the beach with my friends, reading sci-fi books, and stabbing people mercilessly." Vincent grinned mischievously. Fritz was laughing himself in stitches by the time Vince stopped talking.

"You're very funny Vince" Percy said with an irritated look on his face.

"This guy's hilarious Percy. My name's Fritz Smith. I'm the guy who's been working on the animatronics. Everything from the minute facial details, to the additional senses on the animatronics is my doing. Mike knows his way around robots," Here he grinned, "But I'm the computer genius of the crew."

"Oh, so you're the reason it hurt why I ripped m- the suit's jaws apart." Vince said.

"You what?" Fritz said in disbelief. "Did you damage one of the suits?"

"Just a little bit. And it hurt like hell when I did it too." Vince replied. "The jaw works again, I know that for a fact."

"You broke the suit's jaw." Fritz said. "Do you have ANY idea how much effort it takes to get those working? The Puppet took hours to make the synthetic skin for those things. Not to mention the amount of pain I went through in trying to find out how to make pain sensors that would translate properly for a ROBOT."

"Calm down Fritz. I have healed the skin and Mike repaired the jaw. Vincent simply forced the jaws open beyond their normal range of movement. He didn't damage the pain sensors, and he felt his own fair share of pain." The Puppet said calmly, glaring at Vincent.

Fritz took a calming breath. "If he damages the suit permanently, I swear I'll kill him."

"Noted." Vincent said. "What about you Fredbear, what are you contributing to the team?"

Goldie sighed. "You can call me Goldie or Fredbear, I don't care which. I am one of the first group of five that you killed. As a child, I was attentive; but slow and unable to communicate properly. In some ways, I am better off like this. That doesn't mean I forgive you for brutally murdering me, but that there is a major upside to my new existence. My limitations as a living child have vanished in my afterlife, and my magical potential has been unlocked."

"Wow. So vanish bear was socially awkward and stupid. What a surprise." Vincent said, hoping to get on Goldie's nerves.

"Yes I was." Goldie said, not upset in the slightest.

"Get back here you two!"

Vince turned to see a pair of figures dash into the room. One was long-eared like a rabbit, the other was a figure that resembled the old Freddy animatronic. Both had glowing white teeth and eyes, and both of them were such a dark shade of black that it looked like they absorbed the light around them.

Neither was touching the ground.

Mike, who was chasing them, reached out to grab both of them, and suddenly he stopped in his tracks, as if he had run face first into a wall. He slid down to rest on the ground, rubbing his face with his hands. "Both of you are going to be stuck in a bottle for the next three years."

"Do I have to be stuck with him?" The rabbit figure asked, jabbing his thumb towards the bear.

"Hey, I don't want to have to spend three years with only this idiot for company." The bear said, smacking the rabbit on the back of the head.

"You two are insufferable." Mike said, rubbing his temples.

"We try!" The shadow rabbit said.

"Sean, quit being a moron." The shadow bear told him.

"'s not like you're any better Shane." The rabbit, Sean, told him.

The Puppet sighed and did some hand motions. Both the shadows gasped in horror. Both of them turned and tried to run the other way, only to freeze comically mid-movement.

Mike sighed in relief. "Thanks Puppet. These are the brothers I was telling you about Vince. Meet Shane and Sean, a pair of pranksters with magical talent. These two have a ton of potential power, but they have a tendency to use it for the sake of humor."

"Well, individually, we're both a fair amount weaker than the Puppet. Together though, we can perform spells that the Puppet would proclaim impossible." Sean said proudly.

"We're not held back by physical forms either. We don't have to worry about lugging around an animatronic body, or walking on the ground and around walls." Shane said with a smirk. That was another weird thing about the duo, they looked like the old animatronics, but they had full facial mobility.

"Wait a minute, I remember you two! You guys died in the spring lock suits, didn't you?" Vincent said.

"Yup, best thing to ever happen to us." Sean said.

"Worst thing, Sean. Worst." Shane said.

Mike shook his head. "Where's our last member?"

"He's busy right now." Shane said.

Vincent saw a flicker of red out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look, it was gone.

"So who's this mysterious 'last member'?" Vincent asked.

"Right behind you."

* * *

 **This will be the last chapter that is set in the present for a little while, so I made sure it was a fairly long one.**

 **Place your bets on who our mystery character is.**


	22. Night 2

_November 9, 1993_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 12:00 A.M_

Mike knew that he should listen to the message Percy left him, things had definitely changed a lot since the last time he was here.

"Uhh, Hello? Hello? Uh, well, if you're hearing this and you made it to day two, uh, congrats!"

Yep, Percy behaving as normal.

"I-I won't talk quite as long this time since Freddy and his friends tend to become more active as the week progresses. Uhh, it might be a good idea to peek at those cameras while I talk just to make sure everyone's in their proper place. You know..."

Good advice. Mike checked all of his cameras. Bonnie was offstage already, but everyone else was still onstage.

"Uh... Interestingly enough, Freddy himself doesn't come off stage very often. I heard he becomes a lot more active in the dark though, so, hey, I guess that's one more reason not to run out of power, right?"

Mike knew that Freddy didn't like leaving the stage much, but more active in the dark? That was new.

"I-I also want to emphasize the importance of using your door lights. There are blind spots in your camera views, and those blind spots happen to be right outside of your doors. So if-if you can't find something, or someone, on your cameras, be sure to check the door lights. Uh, you might only have a few seconds to react... Uh, not that you would be in any danger, of course. I'm not implying that."

Not in any danger. Hopefully that was true. Better safe than sorry though.

"Also, check on the curtain in Pirate Cove from time to time. The character in there seems unique in that he becomes more active if the cameras remain off for long periods of time. I guess he doesn't like being watched. I don't know."

Foxy doesn't like being watched? That's different entirely. Foxy loved to perform for people, the more watching, the more he enjoyed it.

"Anyway, I'm sure you have everything under control! Uh, talk to you soon."

 _Click_

"…Bye Percy." Mike said.

He opened up his camera again. Foxy was beginning to peek out of the curtains, and Chica had left the main stage.

Mike heard the sound of an animatronic walking around and turned to his left to see Bonnie outside his door. Mike immediately pressed the button to close the door, locking Bonnie out.

"Bonnie, can you hear me?" Mike asked.

The response was a bone-chilling screech.

"So much for that then." Mike said as he listened to the rabbit walk off.

Mike opened the left door and checked the time. 5:30. Time really flies when you're trying to figure out why your friends have gone crazy.

Mike looked at Pirate's Cove. Foxy was gone.

Mike jumped to the left door and slammed the door button.

Seconds later, he heard the sound of something cunning directly outside the door, and then something banging on the door.

Then it was 6:00 A.M., and the animatronics returned to their places.

* * *

 _November 9, 1993_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 11:30_

Mike walked into the pizzeria.

The past two shifts had been nightmare inducing, causing him to sometimes wake up in the middle of the night screaming. It had gotten to the point where the toy animatronics, who he visited on a daily basis in order to make sure they remained in optimal condition, started to creep him out.

Mike shook his head and looked at the trio on the stage. "Freddy? Bonnie? Chica? Can you three even hear me?"

No response.

Mike sighed and walked towards his office, pausing by Pirate's Cove. "Foxy? Can you hear me buddy?"

The curtains twitched.

Mike's spirits rose. "Foxy? Come on out pal."

The curtains moved to the sides to reveal the fox standing there with pinpricks of light for his eyes. The animatronic was twitching and stuttering as it began to walk towards Mike.

Mike looked at his watch. 12:30.

Crap.


	23. Intervention

_November 10, 1993_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 12:30_

Mike was running for his life.

Damn that fox was fast.

Mike was being forced to run faster than he could ever remember going. He managed to get inside the office, and smashed his hand into the door lock.

Mike sighed in relief and sank into his swivel chair.

 _Ring… Ring…_

"Hello, hello? Hey you're doing great! Most people don't last this long. I mean, you know, they usually move on to other things by now. I'm not implying that they died. Th-th-that's not what I meant. Uh, anyway I better not take up too much of your time. Things start getting real tonight."

Mike, still breathing heavily, said "You don't say…"

"Uh... Hey, listen, I had an idea: if you happen to get caught and want to avoid getting stuffed into a Freddy suit, uhh, try playing dead! You know, go limp. Then there's a chance that, uh, maybe they'll think that you're an empty costume instead. Then again if they think you're an empty costume, they might try to... stuff a metal skeleton into you. I wonder how that would work. Yeah, never mind, scratch that. It's best just not to get caught."

"Thanks for stating the obvious Percy."

"Um... Ok, I'll leave you to it. See you on the flip side."

 _Click_

Mike calmed himself down and checked the cameras. This night should be fun…

* * *

 _November 11, 1993_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 12:00_

Mike sat down in his office. Last night was a harrowing one. Freddy was hiding around the east corner the whole time, forcing Mike to keep the door shut. When six had finally run around, Mike had three percent power.

 _Ring… Ring…_

"Hello, hello? Hey! Hey, wow, day 4. I knew you could do it."

Mike grinned, he knew it was a message for whoever the next guard might be, but it still helped lift his spirits.

"Uh, hey, listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow." _Bang. Bang. Bang._ "It's-It's been a bad night here for me. Um, I-I'm kinda glad that I recorded my messages for you" He cleared his throat, "uh, when I did."

Mike's grin vanished and he listened in horror.

"Uh, hey, do me a favor." _Bang. Bang._ "Maybe sometime, uh, you could check inside those suits in the back room?" _Bang. Bang._ "I'm gonna to try to hold out until someone checks. Maybe it won't be so bad." _Bang. Bang._ "Uh, I-I-I-I always wondered what was in all those empty heads back there." The Toreador March started to play in the background.

Mike's horror began to grow.

"You know..." There was a strange moaning sound, like the sort that Bonnie and Chica had started making when Mike took this job. "oh, no –" Right after Percy stopped talking, there was a terror-inducing scream.

 _Click…_

"NO!" Mike shouted and slammed his fists down on his desk.

Mike stood up so quickly that his chair slammed into the wall behind him.

He marched out of the office, no longer caring for his own personal safety.

"You killed him! You killed Percy!" Mike shouted in anger, marching straight up to Freddy. "You lost control and you killed him!"

Freddy's eyes opened for the first time that night, little pinpricks of light in otherwise empty sockets.

Mike's anger began to drain and he slowly backed away from the bear animatronic.

Freddy's hand snapped forwards faster than Mike's eyes could follow.

Mike flinched, but the hit never came.

A golden colored bear animatronic had appeared out of nowhere and had grabbed Freddy's arm, stopping him in his tracks.

Before Mike could react, the yellow animatronic had grabbed him and teleported the both of them away.

Mike found himself in a decrepit room. Among other things, there was the Spring Bonnie animatronic and several arcade machines. The rabbit was in horrible condition, large holes in the torso and most of the fabric on the legs missing showed that it was in the process of decaying.

"Mike, you very nearly died."

Mike looked at his savior, the golden bear had a sympathetic look in his eyes.

"Thanks, I guess…" Mike said, still shaken by the events that had transpired thus far. "Goldie, what happened to them?"

"Us. I was part of this madness too, until just recently." Goldie said sadly. "We were overwhelmed by rage. It didn't matter that the people we stalked and attacked were not the killer, we simply wanted revenge. It has taken us all, and made us… different. Freddy, who used to adore show time, has grown to hate it and the light that he associates with it. Bonnie has become reclusive and refuses to interact with us. Chica, who is usually so even tempered, now blows up at the slightest things. Poor Foxy has grown to hate people watching him, to the point where he would continue to hide in Pirate's Cove even if he wasn't broken."

"What about you?" Mike asked.

"I… tried to kill Percy."


	24. Fired

_November 11, 1993_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 3:00 A.M._

Mike went cold. "What do you mean you tried to kill Percy?"

"I was the only reason his door was open for the others to get him…" Goldie seemed sad. "He was almost out of power, but he had enough to last until six with the doors closed. In order to get him, I teleported into his room and screamed in his face. I think I gave him a heart attack, the poor man. I then opened both doors and teleported out. The others dragged him to the backstage room while he was recovering, and they were about to forcibly stuff him into a suit." Goldie paused "He only survived because six o'clock hit right before they did any damage."

"So Percy isn't dead?" Mike asked nervously.

"No, he is not. Fortune seems to favor that man. He has survived much that would kill one less lucky, although the incident that took his legs is not something to thank."

Mike sighed in relief. "So what can I do to snap them out of it?"

"For me, it was the realization that I was destroying my own morals by hurting a helpless man." Goldie said. "Perhaps if you managed to show them that they went against their values by being the monsters that they are, they would snap out of it." Goldie looked at the clock in the corner of the room. "But perhaps you should get back to your office, six is in five minutes."

Before Mike could say anything, he was back in his office, alone. Mike thought about what Goldie had said. If he could get them to see that they were no longer themselves, perhaps…

The clock chimed six, knocking Mike out of his thinking. This was something for tomorrow night.

* * *

 _November 12, 1993_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 12:00_

 _Ring… Ring..._

 _…Click_

Mike stood up and walked out of the security office, only having stopped by in order to mute the phone call, since he knew Percy hadn't recorded one.

It was time to get his friends back.

First he went to Pirate's Cove, flashlight in hand. He felt bad about doing this, but it seemed to be the best way to solve this issue.

"Foxy! Come on out buddy!" he called into Pirate's Cove

The curtains slowly pulled apart to reveal the pirate standing there twitching.

"Sorry about this pal." Mike whipped his flashlight up and flashed it into the animatronic's eyes.

Immediately the fox shut down, going into an offline position, probably the only time he had turned off since '87.

Mike came to a sudden realization. The toys and the original animatronics had both been in a similar condition back in '87. The toys, unlike the originals, were still sane.

Their souls would keep going within the suits until those suits shut down. That meant that they got no rest, and even if you are a supernatural entity, if you were human at some point, you needed to rest.

They had been driven insane by exhaustion.

Mike ran up to the main stage, all three of them were active and moving towards him, but he was faster than all of them, so long as he stayed out of their reach.

Mike flashed his light in Bonnie's eyes next, hoping it would just reset him like it had Foxy. The rabbit froze for a few moments, but did not cause his reset. Fortunately, Mike managed to take advantage of this freeze, and got behind the lavender animatronic. He quickly unlatched the manual control panel on the back of Bonnie's neck and turned him off.

"Two down, two to go…" Mike muttered to himself.

He turned around to see Freddy reaching towards him. Mike flashed his flashlight in the bear's face, causing a momentary pause. Mike used that pause to duck under the animatronic's arms. Mike slid under a table and popped up directly behind Chica. Mike quickly deactivated her, then ran off again to avoid Freddy.

"Goldie! Help me out!" Mike called to the golden bear that he knew was aware of this battle.

Mike quickly turned around and slit between the bear's legs, coming back up behind him. Goldie was there, holding Freddy's hands in front of him. Suddenly, one of Freddy's hands ripped out of Goldie's grasp, and whistled through the air towards Mike.

Foxy was there holding him back. "Now, now Freddy. You can't do that ta our friend. Ya don't want to kill Mike." He winked at Mike. "I got yer back buddy, go ahead and give Freddy some rest."

"Thanks Foxy." Mike said with a smile. He reached over and turned Freddy off. "Now then. Think that's enough resting time for us to reactivate Bonnie?"

Foxy shrugged. "If it isn't, we can always hold 'im back for you to turn him back off."

Mike went over to Bonnie and turned him back on.

Bonnie's eyes blinked a couple times. "Mike? What happened…?"

"It's a long story." Mike looked at his watch. 3:00. Still enough time to make certain that Chica and Freddy could rest.

* * *

 _November 14, 1993_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 8:00 A.M._

"Fired?!" Mike said in disbelief.

"Sorry Mike, rules are rules. Messing with the animatronics in any way is a sure way to get yourself fired." Vincent said apologetically.

Mike had spent the previous night watching movies with the animatronics. With the advance of technology, Mike was able to bring the movies to the animatronics. The night before, Mike had simply turned all the animatronics off in order to let them recover.

The problem was that Mike had left the animatronics offstage. The previous night Foxy and Bonnie had stayed offstage a little too long, and so had been moving towards the stage when the morning crew arrived that morning.

To make a long argument short, Mike had been fired.

He was not happy about it.

To say the least, Mike went home that day in a bad mood.

* * *

 _November 21, 1994_

 _Mike's home, 11:00_

It had been one year to the day when Freddy Fazbear's Pizza shut down. After Mike left, the animatronics simply stopped working, permanently. It took a full week for the company to realize that they simply couldn't run without the animatronics.

Mike had been spending that year trying his best to buy the company. He knew he was making progress, but it would take some sort of disaster to get them to sell him the company.

Mike was about to go to bed when he heard a voice. "Mister Schmidt."

Mike turned around to see a stick-thin figure with an eternally smiling white face. "Puppet!"

"Mike Schmidt, we need your help." The Puppet told him.

"What with?"

"We need you to go to the pizzeria." The Puppet said. "I will elaborate once you get there."

Thirty minutes later, Mike was at the old pizzeria. The place had had a bad year, and was falling apart. "What do you want me to do?"

"An intruder has gotten in. The animatronics can handle them, but not if they get out." The Puppet explained. "This particular intruder is the same man who killed the children. I need you to lock the door in order to keep him from getting out." The Puppet paused. "This will also help your goal of buying the Freddy Fazbear franchise. When the owners come in and see the dismantled animatronics, they will no longer wish to own the company."

"Is this going to be legal…?" Mike asked worried.

"You are locking the door on a murderer. Your action will not be morally or legally incorrect." The Puppet assured him.

"Okay then..."

* * *

 **Mike gets his friends back, gets fired, and the Puppet gets revenge.**


	25. Follow Me

_November 21, 1994_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 9:00_

Getting in was too easy. The key he had been given when he first got hired for the job had been taken away from him, but getting lock picks was easy. The little metal slivers that could be used to trick a lock were difficult to use at first, but he had enough manual dexterity that he gotten the hang of it extremely quickly.

He looked around the Pizzeria. The old place was falling apart. That idiot G hadn't accepted the offers to buy the old place. What a moron.

As he passed through the building, he heard the sound of motors start up. Crap, the animatronics still had power didn't they?

No matter. They wouldn't be running ever again by the time he was done with them.

He grabbed his specialized tool from his pocket. The company had wondered where the animatronic maintenance tools had gone, but they were too foolish to think that they could be modified into something more… _destructive_.

He walked around the place. Almost anything of value had been removed, with the exception of the animatronics themselves.

The sound of whirring gears made him look up. Looks like Freddy was coming online, better get to the safe room to make sure this bastard couldn't catch him.

He turned around to see Freddy looking around, as if it was confused. The bear animatronic then apparently spotted something. He couldn't see what it was exactly, but there was a vague outline of a tall figure.

He ripped open the safe room using his custom weapon and ducked inside. He could hear the footsteps of the brown robot coming closer. Freddy turned the corner and walked directly at him, apparently not seeing past the doorway to the safe room.

He grinned, this would be satisfying.

Freddy tried to enter the safe room, but as the man had predicted, the animatronic wasn't capable of entering the room, and wound up glitching.

 _Too easy_.

The man ducked behind the robot and undid the neck joint, causing the bear's head to fall off. He then quickly dismantled the shoulder and hip joints, leaving the animatronic helpless and destroyed.

Almost immediately there was the sound of another animatronic powering on. _Good, I wanted this to be quick. How kind of them to oblige_.

Bonnie turned the corner and tried to enter the safe room, only to meet an identical fate to Freddy. Chica followed soon after, seemingly oblivious to the broken bodies of her colleagues on the floor. Foxy was last, but he put up a fight. The man had been forced to dodge several swipes before he finally got the animatronic's arms off.

The man sighed, his work complete. He went to look at the wreckage of his adversaries. _All of them, as useless as paper_.

Suddenly, his outlook changed.

As he watched, wisps of light began to leak out of the torso pieces of all of the animatronics. Before the man could do anything, there were four floating spirits, all of them staring at him.

"Holy crap, this is not real." The man said in disbelief. He dashed off, trying to get out of the building. As he hit the doors, he tried to open them. Locked.

 _They had locked the doors._

The man, beginning to panic, ran through the whole building, taking a roundabout route to get back into the safe room, where he was sure they couldn't follow.

He was wrong.

* * *

 _November 22, 1994_

 _Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 12:00_

When the clock tolled midnight, the child knew that his friends had managed to get the man into the room.

The shadowy figure appeared before the child. It was a tall figure, with glowing white eyes and teeth. It looked more or less like Freddy, but it had skin, or fur, that absorbed light.

"He's all yours kid." The figure said, removing its top hat and taking a bow, before vanishing entirely.

The shadow had promised the five that they could get their revenge on their killer, so long as they followed its lead.

It hadn't lied.

The child wandered through the abandoned building. It was in shambles by now, but that was unimportant. They would have a new home soon, one where they could rest.

The child entered the safe room to be greeted by the sight of a tall, purple-clad figure. The man's grey eyes darting about the room, searching for an escape.

The fifth, and final, child began to advance on the murderer. He could do little without a physical body, but the man didn't know that. There was one thing that the child was certainly capable of. Creating fear.

The man tried to flee from the ghost, but eventually got cornered. Panicked, he looked around, finally spotting what he took to be his salvation.

The old Spring Bonnie suit.

The man dodged around the ghost and dashed towards the golden suit. He quickly opened it up and got inside. Standing up, he laughed. "You little bastards can't get me now!"

Then the man realized where he went wrong. The spring lock suits shouldn't be moved suddenly, gotten wet, or, for that matter, worn at all.

He had done all three things.

 _Crack!_

The spring locks broke, sending the endoskeleton parts launching into the man's body. He cried out in pain, but the ghosts simply watched as he sank to the ground. Any movement hurt, and he could feel his blood leaking out of his body. As he expired, he uttered two words.

"You can't…"

* * *

 **He will come back. Like he always does.**


	26. Fazbear's Fright

_June 4, 2007_

 _Fazbear's Fright, 12:00 A.M._

Mike sighed. He had gotten this job in the hopes of finding the two last animatronics.

Mr. G, after the events of that night, now thirteen years ago, had sold him the company at a price so low that Mike couldn't even believe it was the same miserly man. Immediately after obtaining ownership, Mike had recovered and repaired Freddy, Foxy, Bonnie, and Chica. Those four, along with the toy animatronics, were currently in the building he had commissioned to be built on the lot in the middle of the city.

Mike had hired Fritz to work on upgrading the animatronics in any way possible, but not to turn them on. Thus far, Fritz had made some amazing innovations in technology, including fully functional smell sensors and an artificial stomach that could break down just about anything into an electrochemical reaction. Mike had watched in amazement as the artificial stomach had completely consumed an apple, leaving nothing behind and generating a staggering amount of energy.

But that wasn't the problem right now.

The problem was that both Goldie and the Puppet were missing.

Mike had scoured both of the old pizzerias for any trace of them, but thus far he had found nothing.

Which was why he was in this crappy job.

He had heard that there was a group of people going around collecting anything they could on the old pizzeria chain. They had already found some pretty cool stuff, including most of a Freddy suit, heads of Bonnie and Chica, and parts from the old toy animatronics. This last was especially impressive, considering that any evidence of the toys had effectively vanished off the face of the world.

Mike sighed again. His current employer, Charley, was a bit… odd. The man acted and sounded like he was on some sort of psychedelic drug, but Mike had known him for a while, and there was no evidence whatsoever that Charley took drugs. Instead the man had some sort of strange obsession with horror stories.

Mike shook his head and settled in, Charles knew that Mike was a multimillionaire, so the man was constantly apologizing and trying to get on Mike's good side. Not that it mattered, Mike had plans, and Charley could be a part of them if he wanted. Thus far, the man hadn't asked him for anything, but you never knew.

 _Ring… Ring…_

"He-hey! Glad you came back for another night! I promise, it'll be a LOT more interesting this time!"

Mike grinned to himself. Charles said that it would be more interesting every time Mike stayed another night, but Mike had yet to see evidence that the man was telling the truth.

"We found som-some great new relics over the weekend, and were out tracking down a new lead RIGHT NOW!"

A new lead? That could be good. Or, you know, it could be absolute garbage.

"So, uhh- let me just update you real quick, then you can get to work. Like, the attraction opens in like a week, so we have to make sure EVERYTHING works, and nothing catches on fire! Uhm, when the place opens, people will come in at the opposite end of the building, and work their way towards you, and PASS you, and out the exit. Uh, yeah you've officially become part of the attraction. Uh, you'll be starring as... The Security Guard!"

Mike chuckled. Charley didn't really know that Mike had been security guard at Freddy's, and Mike wasn't about to tell him. It would probably lead to Mike being showered with questions that Charley could learn the answers to with a little research.

"So not only will you be monitoring the people on the camera as they pass through, you know, to make sure no one STEALS anything or, makes out at the corner, but you'll also be a part of the show!"

Mike shook his head again. Charley was thirty years old, and the man was still about as mature as an average teen.

"It'll make it feel, really authentic I think. Uh, now let me tell you about what's new. We found another set of drawings, always nice, AND A FOXY HEAD! Which we think could be authentic! Then again, it might just be another crappy cosplay."

Mike knew all about the incident where they had found a "genuine" Freddy head. The thing had turned out to be papier-mâché, it had collapsed the instant they tried to clean it.

"And we found a Desk fan, very old school, metal though, so watch the fingers! Uh, heh! Uhm, right now the place is basically just, you know, FLASHING LIGHTS and SPOOKY PROPS. I honestly thought we'd have more by now, uh so if we don't have anything really cool by next week, we may have to suit you up in a furry suit, and make you walk around saying: "BOOO!" Hehe. Uh, but you know like I said, were trying to track down, a good lead right now."

Mike actually laughed at that. He knew Charley was joking, but the concept of running around wearing a fur suit and screaming in people's faces had an irony that was hilarious.

"Uh, some guy who helped design one of the buildings, said there was like, an extra room that got boarded up..?"

Mike sobered quickly and sat up. That was new.

"Or something like that. So! Were gonna take a peak, and see what we can find."

That could actually reveal the locations of his friends. Mike had never known about a secret room in the pizzerias.

"Uh, for now just get comfortable with the new setup. You can check the security cameras over on your right, with a click of that blue button. Uh, you can toggle between the Hall cams and the Vent cams. Uh, then over on your far left, you can flip up your maintenance panel."

Mike checked out the new gear. Nothing as impressive as what Fritz could rig up, given time and materials, but a bit easier to use than the primitive tablets at the old locations.

"You know, use this to reboot any systems that may go offline."

Wait, what?

"Uh, in trying to make the place feel more vintage we have overdone it a bit! Heh heh. Some of this equipment is BARELY functional! Uh, I wasn't joking about the fire, that- that's a real risk."

Great, so the place might burn down while he was here. Not the biggest risk Mike had ever been in, but something he didn't want to happen nonetheless.

"Uhm, but the MOST IMPORTANT THING, you have to watch for, is the Ventilation. Look, this place will give you the spooks man, and if you let that ventilation go offline, then you'll start seeing some craaazy stuff man, keep that air blowing!"

Mike wasn't certain if this was just Charles being Charles, or if there was actually a risk of hallucinations. Either way, best to keep this working anyway.

"Ok, keep an eye on things, and we'll try to have something new for ya tomorrow night."

 _Click._

* * *

 _June 5, 2007_

 _Fazbear's Fright, 12:00_

 _Ring… Ring…_

"Hey man! Ok, I have some awesome news for you! First of all: We found some vintage audio traning cassettes. Dude, these are like, prehistoric!"

Not exactly Charley. Not exactly.

"I think they were like, training tapes, for like other employees or something like that. So, I thought we could like, have them playing, like over the speakers while people walk through the attraction?"

Wait, they were going to play some of the training tapes Percy had recorded? That was interesting.

"Dude, that makes this feel, LEGIT man. But I have an even better suprise for you, and you're not gonna belive this! We found one. A REAL one."

This was why Mike was here. He didn't quite know which it could be, but either of his friends would be a fantastic find.

"Uh, oh uhm, gotta go man! W-well look I-It's in there somewhere, I-I'm sure you'll see it. Okay, I'll leave you with some of this great audio I found. Talk to you later man!"

 _Click._

As Mike pondered what Charley said, the audio that his employer had found started to play.

"Oh, Hello! Hello, hello! Uh, welcome to your new career as a perfomer/entertainer, for Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

Oh, this was a tape for one of the performers. But the staff didn't do any performing…?

"Uh, these tapes will provide you, with much needed information on how to handle/climb into/climb out of, mascot costumes. Right now, we have 2 specially designed suits, that double as both animatronic and suit!"

Oh, the spring lock suits. These tapes really were quite old.

"So please, pay close attention while learning how to operate these suits, as accidents/injury/death/irreparable and grotesque maiming can occur."

Mike nodded. That much was true.

"First we will discuss how to operate the mascots when they are in Animatronic form. For ease of operation the animatronics are set to turn and walk towards sound, giving an easy and hands free approach, to making sure the animatronics stay where the children are, for maximum entertainment/crowd pleasing value."

Wait a second, hadn't Charley put buttons on the camera setup that would play a child's laughter? Did that mean…?

"To change the animatronics to Suit mode, insert and turn firmly the hand crank, provided by the manufacturer. Turning the crank will recoil and compress the animatronic parts around the sides of the suit, providing room to climb inside. Please make sure the spring lock is fastened tight, to ensure the animatronic devices remain fit. We'll cover this in more detail, in tomorrow's session. Remember to smile, you are the face of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

Mike had ignored the last part of the message, and was frantically searching the cameras to see where Goldie was. As he flipped through the cameras, he spotted a tall figure, but he had clicked the next camera before he could get a good look. Mike changed back to the previous camera and took a good look.

It certainly wasn't Goldie.

* * *

 **I take it back, this is the longest chapter yet. Mostly because Charley talks a lot.**


	27. Springtrap

_June 5, 2007_

 _Fazbear's Fright, 3:00 A.M._

That wasn't Goldie.

That thing didn't even look like it was supposed to be functional. Wires were hanging out of various holes in the thing's body, along with the legs being completely stripped of any protective covering.

Spring Bonnie looked like it had turned into some sort of demon.

"What the hell have you been through springs…?" Mike muttered to himself. The Spring Bonnie suit wasn't haunted like the others, in fact it was the only animatronic that was in the pizzeria that had never housed a child's spirit. Despite this, it was still unsettling to look at the yellow animatronic.

Suddenly, the suit looked directly up into the camera, and Mike immediately knew it wasn't just an animatronic. The eyes glowed with supernatural energy, so similar to the Puppet's eyes when it was mad.

Mike took a deep breath and pressed one of the "play sound" buttons. The sound of a child saying "Hi" echoed through the building, and as Mike watched, the suit walked out of the sight of the camera and into another room.

 _Clunk. Clunk._

Was it in the vents…?

Mike quickly changed camera mode to the vents to see the eerie suit glaring at the camera, barely a foot away. The glowing white eyes were far from the creepiest part of it. It had a creepily unnerving grin all the time, and Mike could see bits of endoskeleton and… something else poking out of the various parts of the suit.

Mike quickly shut down that particular vent. After a few minutes, he heard the _clunk, clunk_ of something exiting the vents. Soon after, a red light began flashing and an alarm began to blare through the office. Mike turned to his left to see that the ventilation had gone offline. He quickly began to reboot the system when he heard a voice.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Michael Schmidt."

Mike looked up from the maintenance panel to see Spring Bonnie right outside his office, staring in through the glass. The animatronic's voice was extremely familiar, albeit more… broken. "Vincent!?"

"How's it going Mikey!" the decaying suit said cheerfully. "How's my favorite murderer doing?"

Mike sputtered. "Murderer?!"

"Yeah! After all, I thought I saw you walking away from the pizzeria that night. My only question is why you locked me in the building?" Vincent paused, "Actually, I think I know. You care more about those damn robots than your own co-worker. That's why you locked me in to die in this spring trap." He paused again. "Spring trap… Springtrap. Springtrap." He popped the P. "Has a nice ring to it. Springtrap. Call me that instead. After all, it perfectly describes what I am now."

"Vince you were the one who…?" Mike paused, thinking. "But then…? The Puppet said that it was the…"

"Murderer? Yup! That's me! I killed those little brats. Made the world a better place. You know, until they killed me." He looked up at the clock just outside the office. "Looks like your shift is almost over. Guess I'll have to wait 'till tomorrow to get my revenge. Tootles!" Springtrap laughed and walked off.

Mike sighed. This job was going to be hell.

* * *

 _June 6, 2007_

 _Fazbear's Fright, 12:00 A.M._

Tonight would be interesting.

 _Very_ interesting.

 _Ring… Ring…_

"Uh, hello hello! Uhm, for today's lesson we will be continuing our training on proper suit handling technique. When using an animatronic as a suit, please ensure that the animatronic parts are tightly compressed and fastened, by the spring lock located around inside of the suit. It may take a few moments, position your head and torso between these parts, in a manner where you can move and speak. Try not to nudge or press against ANY of the spring locks inside the suit. Do not touch the spring lock at any time. Do not breathe on a spring lock, as moisture may loosen them, and cause them to break loose. In the case that the spring lock comes loose while wearing the suit, please try to maneuver away from populated areas, before bleeding out, as to not ruin the customer experience."

Company policy being downright lethal, as per usual.

"As always, if there is ever an emergency, please go to the designated safe room. Every location is filled with 1 extra room, that is not included in the digital map layout programmed for the animatronics or security systems. This room is hidden to customers and animatronics, and is always off camera. As always, remember to smile, as you are the face of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

That would explain the secret rooms Charles had talked about. But that wasn't the primary concern for tonight.

 _He's going to kill me. He's going to actually kill me._

 _And there's nothing I can do about it…_

Mike quickly took a scan of the location. Vince was standing in one of the rooms, investigating a Bonnie mask and torso that had been set up on a stand.

Mike sighed in relief and began to check the other cameras. As he flicked through them, the image on one made him stop in his tracks.

BB was staring directly into the camera.

But BB was back at the new location…?

Mike put his camera away just in time to see a burned and decaying BB launch itself towards him, the plastic of its face stretching impossibly in order to open its mouth.

Then, just as Mike expected it to hit him, it vanished.

"What. The actual. Hell." Mike muttered.

"Aww, is Mikey confused?" Springtrap teased from the other side of the glass.

"How did you get here so quickly?!" Mike said confused.

"I'm fast. Easy as that." The rotted machine explained nonchalantly, leaning against the window and examining his 'nails'

Mike calmed himself down and pulled out his camera, pressing the camera button closest, and pressing the play sound button.

"Aww c'mon…" Springtrap moaned, and sped out of the room.

Mike grinned in relief. Turns out Vince couldn't overpower the suit's programming. That was good.

Mike continued to lure the decaying rabbit away from the office, when he spotted something in one of the rooms. He looked at it for a little bit, then a loud noise began to fill the office.

Mike looked up to see a fox head peeking just above the bottom edge of the window. The eyes were a glowing white just like Springtrap, and like BB, it was covered in scorch marks.

Just as suddenly as it started, the noise stopped, and Mike heard a familiar voice. "Mike?!"

"Jeremy?!"

* * *

 **We get to see two of the phantoms, and learn what Vince is calling himself now. We also get to see an old friend...**


	28. Phantom

_Present Day, June 5, 2010._

Vincent whirled around. There was no way anyone could have sneaked up on him. He had honed his senses to knifepoint in life, for reasons that he didn't ever want to think of again.

The person behind him didn't need to sneak. Ghosts don't make sound when they don't want to.

"Oh, the kid, Fitzgerald." Vincent said in disgust.

"Oh, the monster, Vincent." Jeremy replied with a grin.

"You know, it's funny, I didn't think gingers had souls." Vincent retorted.

"The way you act, anyone would think you didn't have one either."

"Touché…" Vincent muttered. "How did you come back anyway? I can understand the brothers shadow coming back, they were obliterated by those spring suits; but you died peacefully, in your sleep."

"Well, it's a long story. But I figure you've got time."

* * *

 _June 6, 2007_

 _Fazbear's Fright, 3:00 A.M._

"How exactly did you get here Jeremy?" Mike asked confused. Jeremy had entered the office, completely ignoring the glass of the window. The ghost still looked like a burnt version of Vix, however.

"You know how you told me that the children had come back to life using the suits?" Mike nodded in confirmation. "Well, when you told me about it, I immediately made up my mind to make sure those kids would have a safe place to live. I figured that since you knew about them being alive, not to mention the fact that you were the mechanic, you would be the ideal custodian." Jeremy paused. "This is when things get a little… weird."

"I can handle weird. Some of my best friends are haunted robots."

"Good enough for me. When the power went out in the hospital, I panicked. The whole time I was in my coma I was lucid. I could hear everything that was said and I could think clearly. I just couldn't act. So when the machines that were keeping me alive cut out, I was able to think of a way to save myself, but not to act on it. In short, I died." Jeremy paused again. "But I didn't stop thinking. My mind was beginning to go blurry and my thoughts began to flee, but I held one thing in my mind: I can survive this."

"You kept yourself alive with the power of positive thinking?" Mike asked incredulously

"No, far from it. I died almost immediately. What happened was that my soul drifted. It reverted to the one thing that was on my mind, literally. My soul attached itself to Vix." Jeremy grinned, a bizarre expression coming from a creature that was ordinarily plastic. "She's like the little sister I wish I had. But that's off topic. For a while I drifted mindlessly, not awake or thinking. Then, one day, Vix was activated, and she managed to bring me back to my senses. We got to know each other well, like siblings. When Vix was deactivated again, I was alone. I didn't revert to my drifting state, fortunately. I mostly just waited, looking around the room, memorizing every detail. Being dead is one of the most boring things ever, but it has its perks."

"Perks? How?" Mike was perplexed.

"For starters, I learned that I could do magic." Jeremy explained.

"Magic." Mike said in disbelief. He had seen Goldie teleport and manipulate people's brains. He had seen the Puppet levitate. But hearing someone just say 'magic' was a different matter entirely.

"Yeah, I didn't believe it either at first. The Puppet found me in the storage room where the toys were being held. It was surprised that I had lasted so long without much company, and that I was a ghost at all. When I explained my scenario, it decided that I must be a magic user of some sort."

"So if you're a magic user, why didn't you do magic when you were alive, you know, to save yourself from death?" Mike asked, absentmindedly luring Springtrap away. The golden rabbit was constantly making rude gestures or silly faces at the camera.

"The Puppet explained it like this. Magic users are incapable of doing magic while they are alive. Instead they manifest the magic within them as the ability to see the spirits of the dead. When a magic user dies, they usually die peacefully, meaning there is no ghost. But if a magic user dies and remains in the world, they have access to a reservoir of power that can be utilized to do many things." Jeremy paused. "You understand so far?"

"I think so."

"Good. This is where it gets odd. Apparently Vincent Tollini was also a magic user."

"What?" Mike asked

"Yeah, I was confused too. But I saw the proof as soon as I came here. In fact, the proof is the exact reason that I'm here. Vincent, or Springtrap, as he wants to be called now, summoned a total of six ghosts to this place."

"Six?!"

"Yeah, the fool brought six of his worst enemies here. Lessee… he called for BB, Foxy, Freddy, Chica, and Puppet."

"But that's five, and what about you?" Mike was still confused about the discussion on magic earlier.

"Vince called Mangle as well." The phantom grinned again. "But the ghost within the toy Foxy animatronic doesn't answer to that name. I do."

"So why can't he control you, if he obviously has control over BB?"

"Magic users are naturally resistant to the magic of others. Well, Ghost magic users are. I'm not as powerful as the Puppet or even Springtrap himself, but Vince has stretched his power too thin." Jeremy paused. "In other words, he's powerless do utilize his magic to do anything else. He used most of it up calling us here, and the rest is going towards controlling four of his 'minions'."

Before Mike could ask another question, the clock chimed six o'clock, and Jeremy simply vanished.

"This just keeps getting stranger and stranger…"

* * *

 **If you bet that the mysterious final member was Jeremy, you were correct!**

 **This is just a little dip back into the present, we're going to have a little ways to go before we end the memories. At least we finally know exactly when the "present" is.**


	29. It Burns!

_June 7, 2007_

 _Fazbear's Fright, 12:00 A.M_

 _Ring… Ring…_

Mike had settled himself in for the night already, he knew that Springtrap would be after him soon, but he was still listening to Percy's old training tapes in case anything important came up.

"Uh, hello? Hello, hello! Uhm, there has been a slight change of company policy, concerning you and the suits. Uhm, so. After learning of an unfortunate incident at the sister location involving multiple and simultaneous spring lock failures, the company has deemed the suits temporarily unfit for employees."

Sister location? Oh yeah, Percy hadn't been there that day. He was at another location for almost a week when the two spring suits had failed.

"Safety is top priority at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, which is why the classic suits are being retired to an appropriate location, while being looked at by our technicians. Until replacements arrive, you'll be expected to wear the temporary costumes provided to you."

Hadn't they ordered in some suits that had been a similar color to the original golden spring suits? They were more brown than gold, and they were eventually scrapped entirely.

"Keep in mind, they were found on very short notice, so questions about appropriateness/relevance should be deflected."

Ah, that explains it.

"I repeat, the classic suits are not to be touched, activated or worn. That being said, we are free of liability, do as you wish. As always, remember to smile. You are the face of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

 _Click._

Mike checked his cameras, trying to find the room that he had looked at when Jeremy had popped up. No such luck, he couldn't really remember what that particular room had looked like.

Let's see… Vince had summoned Mangle, BB, Foxy, Freddy, Chica, and the Puppet. So far he had only seen two out of the six, but he would need to be wary not to accidentally cause them to attack him. Springtrap still had control over them.

"Wow Mike, you've gotten really bad at this."

Mike looked up from his camera to see the rotted rabbit directly outside his window. "What do you want Vince?" Now that he was closer, and Mike wasn't so preoccupied, Mike saw something that disturbed him immensely.

The man's corpse was still in the suit. Rotting away.

Vincent followed Mike's line of sight to the gaping hole in the suit's stomach area. "Ah, I see you're admiring my innards." With a sickening squelch, he reached into his own body and pulled out a mess of organs. "Want to take a closer look?"

Mike wanted to vomit, but knew that taking his eyes off of the zombie would lead to his immediate and unpleasant death. "No thanks."

"Aww, is Mikey squeamish? I know exactly how to fix tha-" He cut off as a high pitched 'Hello!' played through the building. "Sonuva…" He muttered as he darted off.

Mike breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at a decayed body inside of a creepy, always grinning rabbit suit was bad, but what would have happened if Springtrap caught him would probably be worse.

Mike turned to check the maintenance panel, when suddenly a decayed Foxy launched itself at him, hissing. The thing had come out of nowhere, and it had already been in the air when Mike spotted it.

Mike shook his head, trying to clear away the afterimages. He looked at the panel and rebooted the ventilation system, knowing that Springtrap would get him if the alarms kept blaring.

Mike closed the panel and pulled up his camera. _Looks like Vince thinks the vents are a good idea_. Mike quickly sealed the vent that Springtrap was in. In response, Springtrap made a rude gesture.

Mike chuckled, he found Springtrap's antics to be funny. "Don't you ever change Vince." Mike considered what he just said.

"Well, maybe less murder, but other than that, don't change."

* * *

 _June 8, 2007_

 _Fazbear's Fright, 12:00 A.M._

Another night, another shift of keeping Springtrap out of the office.

 _Ring… Ring…_

"Hello? Hello? Um, this is just a reminder of company policy concerning the safe room. The safe room is reserved for equipment and/or other property not being currently used and is in fact a safety location for employees only. This is not a break room, and should not be considered a place for employees to hide and/or congregate - and under no circumstance should a customer ever be taken into this room and out of the main show area."

Old news really. The only person to have ever broken that last rule was now dead. Not to mention rotting.

"Management has also been made aware that the spring Bonnie animatronic has been noticeably moved."

This made Mike sit up. So Vince had been using the Spring Bonnie suit for a long while. Fortunately, Mike knew that no children had gone missing at the approximate time that this message was recorded. It looked like that particular group of kids was smart enough to stay away from him.

"We would like to remind employees that this costume is not safe to wear under any circumstances. Thank you and remember to smile; you are the face of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

 _Click_

"What a bore, right?"

Mike looked up from his cameras. "How did you get here so fast?"

"You're getting really bad at checking those cameras Mike. I had to wait for a few minutes before realizing you had forgotten to even look at them." Springtrap laughed.

"Vince, are you enjoying yourself?" Mike asked suddenly.

Springtrap immediately went from laughing to furious. "NO! I am not enjoying myself! And Vincent is dead! DEAD!" He slammed both his fists on the glass. "This is what he looks like now!" The rabbit reached up and pulled the top half of his head away, revealing a mummified face, locked in an eternal scream. "This is the face of the man you once called Vincent Tollini!" Springtrap pulled the animatronic face back down. "You're not worth my effort tonight. Enjoy your ghosts, Schmidt. Tomorrow you won't leave." The rabbit turned and walked away.

* * *

 _June 9, 2007_

 _Fazbear's Fright, 12:00_

Almost immediately upon entering his office, Mike spotted the phantom fox to his left. Mike knew how to avoid the phantom attacks by now, they couldn't attack if you paid no attention to them.

 _Ring… Ring…_

"Uh, hello? Hello? Uh, this is just to inform all employees that due to budget restrictions, the previously mentioned safe rooms are being sealed at most locations, including this one. Work crews will be here most of the day today, constructing a false wall over the old door base. Nothing is being taken out beforehand, so if you've left anything inside, then it's your own fault. Management also requests that this room not be mentioned to family, friends or insurance representatives. Thanks again, and remember to smile; you are the face of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza"

 _Click_

Mike heard the phone call, but only on the edge of his hearing. He was frantically checking cameras to find Springtrap.

"No… not here… nope…" Mike muttered to himself

"Whatcha looking for?"

Mike whirled around to see that the rabbit was in his office with him. "But… how?"

"You really are stupid enough to think that I can't move around during the day? That's the whole reason I'm here!" Springtrap grabbed Mike by the neck and lifted the man into the air. "The only reason I haven't done it before now is because I figured I would have a little fun. Let you have your five nights at Freddy's." Springtrap paused. "Now then. It's time to die."

Springtrap slowly began to tighten his grip, forcing Mike to fight back against the animatronic with all his strength. In life, Mike was considerably stronger than Vincent, but he could not out power this mechanical monster. As the rabbit's hand slowly squeezed the life out of Mike, the face of the animatronic lifted, revealing the desiccated face, its protruding eyes giving Mike the feeling that it was screaming at him.

"Not today, I think."

Suddenly, Springtrap's hand was forced open, and the rabbit was launched into the wall. "Oh look, if it isn't my old pal Fredbear! How's it going Fredbear, I heard that you were considered absolute junk recently." Springtrap said sadistically.

Goldie was standing there, in the room, using his telekinetic capabilities to hold Springtrap against the wall. "Mike, I suggest you run."

Mike took his advice, remembering what Jeremy had said about magic users being resistant to other magic. Goldie could only hold Springtrap for so long.

"Yes, run along little Mikey! Let's make the game more _fun_." Springtrap's taunt echoed after him.

Mike's feet pounded the floor of the horror attraction, trying to find a place where Springtrap couldn't reach him. Unfortunately, the vents connected almost every room, meaning that the zombified rabbit could find him anywhere he went.

Mike dashed past several phantoms, trying to ignore all of them, but they began to follow after him. Mike whirled around to see four out of the supposed six phantoms all trailing after him. These four were the only ones to have ever showed up, besides Jeremy three nights ago.

Mike suddenly realized something crucial about the phantoms. They were no longer just insubstantial ghosts.

They were deathly real now.

Mike had no clue how Springtrap had managed such a feat, Jeremy had said that the rabbit's magic was spread thin, but apparently he had enough power to turn illusions real, if only for a short while.

Mike ducked under Foxy as the phantom lunged at him, and shoved the fox over his shoulder. The thing was extremely heavy, but Mike managed to cause it to crash into the wall behind him, hopefully putting the fox out of the fight.

Mike then ducked around Chica as she came towards him, pushing her along and causing her collapse on the ground. Freddy, somehow moving about fine with his solitary leg, came towards him next, but a simple leg sweep disabled the bear. Lastly, BB wasn't a challenge at all, the round animatronic incapable of doing anything once Mike pushed him onto his back.

Mike heard the sound of clapping. "Bravo! Bravo! You really showed them who the boss is."

Mike turned around to see Springtrap climbing out of a vent. "What a shame there's one more guest to this party. Mangle couldn't be here today, hell if I know why." With that, the rabbit snapped his fingers.

As Mike stared, four long spindly limbs extended out of the vent behind Springtrap. All four limbs out of the vent, the Puppet raised itself to its full height, being almost a foot taller than the spring animatronic.

"Sic 'em." Springtrap said, pointing at Mike.

The Puppet raised both its arms and wrapped them around Springtrap's neck. "What the hell are you doing?! Get HIM!"

The Puppet put its masked head next to Springtrap's "I never was yours to control."

"Goddamn you all! God DAMN IT!" Springtrap shouted in rage, flailing about in the Puppet's grasp. Somehow, this stick-thin figure was stronger than the mechanical rabbit.

As Springtrap flailed, he kicked a Chica head lying on the ground, breaking the lightbulb inside. Almost immediately, Mike could smell something burning. As all three of them watched in horror, flames began to spring up on the ground around the animatronic head.

Springtrap laughed. "Finally! FINALLY! I can finally leave this crappy horror attraction!" Springtrap said, managing to break free of the Puppet's grasp and launching himself into the fire.

"No! Vince!" Mike shouted in horror. "Don't let him kill himself!"

The Puppet responded, pulling Springtrap out of the fire and lifting the rabbit, still smoldering, into the air.

"Let me die! Let me burn!" Vince shouted angrily. The Puppet responded by deactivating the golden rabbit, forcing him to sleep.

"Quick, we gotta get out of here!" Mike shouted to the Puppet. The fire was beginning to climb the wall, growing bigger and hotter by the second.

Mike and the Puppet, plus Springtrap, rushed out of the burning building. There was little they could do to stop the fire at this point, not even magic could accomplish such a feat.

The Puppet set Springtrap down and sighed. "His soul is damaged, and his mind is broken. It is nearly impossible to make out his thoughts."

"Could you fix him?" Mike asked hopefully. Despite everything that had happened, Mike still believed that Vince could eventually find redemption.

The Puppet looked over the rabbit. "For you, yes." The Puppet turned towards him. "For the man who will rebuild our home, and repair our damaged family, I will heal this man who is so broken." The Puppet turned back towards Springtrap. "It will take months, even years, before he awakens again. You had best begin preparations soon"

Mike nodded. He knew now that both the Puppet and Goldie would be in the new pizzeria when he needed them, and the only other person who was still alive and associated with Freddy Fazbear's Pizza was already working on the animatronics. _But wait, how could I forget him?_ Mike took out his phone and dialed in a number.

 _Ring… Ring…_

"Hello hello?"

"Hey Percy. You up for another night shift?"

* * *

 **I really need to stop saying "X is my longest chapter" because then I go and do something like this.**

 **In any event, this concludes the first story arc. There will be far fewer flashbacks from here on out, and hopefully there'll be more laughs. I classified this story as Humor for a reason.**

 **For anyone who is confused, the ages of the current human characters is as follows:**

 **Mike: 43**

 **Percy: 50**

 **Vince: Biologically: 34. Years since birth: 50. Mental age: 10**

 **Fritz: 34**

 **Jeremy: dead. Or 16, up to your preference, really.**


	30. Home

_Present Day_

"So, basically, you became a ghost because you wanted to?" Vince asked incredulously. "Why the hell would you do that?"

"I didn't want to leave the world yet. I figured that I could help out with something." Jeremy replied, then grinned. "After all, it helped save Mike from you."

Vincent grumbled. "How was I supposed to know there were two ghosts in the Mangle?"

"Tsk tsk Vince, you should know by now that she doesn't like to be called that." Jeremy scolded.

Percy and Fritz just watched in confusion. As far as they could tell, Vincent had been talking to himself for the past ten minutes.

"Um, Vince?" Percy said, "Who are you talking to?"

"Fitzgerald, who else?" Vince replied irritably.

"Who else is exactly what he asked." Fritz pointed out.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Neither Percy nor Fritz can see or hear spirits." Jeremy said, rubbing the back of his head. "Lemme just…" There was a slight change, nothing Vince could notice, but it was there nonetheless.

"Oh, now I see him." Percy said. "Sorry Vincent."

"So what exactly is Jeremy's job here?" Vince asked

"He's been our security system thus far. He's caught multiple groups of kids trying to sneak in and reported them to either me, Goldie, or the Puppet." Mike answered. "From there, depending on the attitude of the intruders, they're either let off with a warning, or scared so badly they tell ghost stories about 'the creepy building in the middle of the city'."

Vincent chuckles. "That sounds like a good way to deter intruders."

Mike shrugged. "It's worked most of the time, occasionally some kids come back. That's when the shadows step in and hex them."

Both shadows had already adjusted themselves in order to be visible to Percy and Fritz.

"Yup! Hexes, curses, voodoo, whatever you want to call it. That's our specialty." Sean said proudly.

"Usually it's nothing too bad, just something small like a charm that removes their bladder control whenever they enter the building." Shane explained. "They usually wear off within a month. Whenever the place opens, we're to remove all of our hexes from everyone." The shadow bear seemed disappointed about this last part.

"And if neither of you buffoons removes those hexes, I'll be forced to step in." the Puppet told both the shadows.

"Wait, why didn't the Puppet just magic the building un-enterable?" Vincent asked.

"I was busy reanimating you. It's not easy to reconstruct flesh, harder to reconstruct organs, and nearly impossible to do skin. I had to use pig protein in order to assemble the cells for your skin." The Puppet said. It saw the unnerved look on Vincent's face. "Now you get squeamish? You used to literally take your intestines out and show them to people. In any case, most mammals have similar, if not identical, protein structure. Your skin is as human as Mike's."

"Wait, so you made Mike out of pig skin too?"

The Puppet sighed. "I have not performed any magic on Michael Schmidt. I have never needed to. In any case, all of the animatronics have the same kind of skin as you do. The only difference is that theirs will grow fur, or as the case may be, feathers, in their specific color."

"Then why is my hair white?" Vince asked

"I cannot create pigments. I can alter them, but unless you wanted to be covered in black hair, the only solution would be to give you hair that was bleached white."

"Great. So now I'm like a ghost. I don't even need to wear a white blanket on Halloween." At this all three of the ghosts that were hovering in the room gave him a glance. "Anyways, why isn't Jeremy still your security system?"

Mike shook his head. Vince seemed to hear things at different speeds. "We've got a proper security system in now. Cameras, security room, tablet, the whole thing. Plus, now that you're awake, we have a security guard."

"So I have to sit in a cramped little office, with nothing but a tablet and doors for company?" Vince asked in disbelief.

Mike grinned. "I managed. Four times, in fact."

Vincent counted inside his head. Lessee… there was the 1983 location… then the 1987 pizzeria… then back to the 1983 place… wow, he had actually been security guard four times. "So I guess you've done your shift, huh?"

Mike shrugged. "I would take the shift myself. But I figured that it should be some sort of initiation ritual." He grinned. "After all, I've done a grand total of twenty six nights in a building full of creepy animatronics, Jeremy had nearly a whole week, and Percy did a couple weeks before the heart attack incident."

"Well what about Smith?"

"I have to spend my days in a dimly lit room, deconstructing and reconstructing the damn things. I get a break." Fritz explained.

"I would just like to remind you all that cursing will be prohibited once the pizzeria opens." Goldie said mildly.

"Hey, when exactly is opening day?" Vincent asked suddenly.

"In one week." Mike said.

"Oh. Crap. I got some stuff I gotta do at that time, sorry guys, you know, reservations and all that." Vincent said and got up from the table.

"Sit back down Vince. You don't have anything you're going to be doing." Mike said.

"How do you know?"

"You've been dead for sixteen years. I highly doubt that anyone keeps reservations that long."

"Fine. Give me one good reason I should help you run this place?"

Mike sighed. "You'll get your old job back!"

"Yeah, cause I loved that job sooo much."

"You'll be the head of security. It's not as if you have much choice."

"I demand a pay raise!" Vincent exclaimed.

"You don't need one! Your home is right here, and we've got literally everything you need." Mike replied

Vincent blinked. That was a little different. "What do you mean?"

Mike sighed. "Follow me."

Mike led Vincent to a door that proclaimed "Staff Only" and went inside. There was a staff lounge here, featuring a television, several wall outlets, a refrigerator, and a microwave, among other things. In the back left corner of the room was a staircase that led downwards. Vincent followed Mike down the staircase to see a short hallway with four doors leading out of it. One door is marked 'Mike' one marked 'Percy' one marked 'Fritz', and the last unmarked. At the other end of the hallway was a ramp that curved back upwards into the staff lounge. Mike went to the unmarked door and opened it, showing Vincent the inside.

To put it simply, this was the nicest room Vincent had ever been in.

There was a bed in one corner, and directly opposite a television. On a bedside table was a tablet, a smartphone, and a lamp. There was a walk-in closet directly opposite the entrance to the room. To top it all off, there was a soft carpet that covered the entire floor of the room.

"Wow."

* * *

 **Just under a week since I started writing this story, and I'm already at chapter thirty. Admittedly, most of the chapters are fairly short, but the speed at which I wrote this astonishes even me.**

 **Uploads will probably be a bit slower from here on out. Writing the first arc was fairly easy, I had the games as a guideline. From here on out, it will be more unique.**


	31. Adjusting

Vincent walked into his new room.

The television was huge, the only other television he had seen of comparable size was the one in the staff lounge. This was the first tablet he had ever seen that wasn't company property. Fazbear entertainment had some pretty high-tech gear, up until you realized they only had about a single double A battery running the whole building. He didn't know what to make of the smartphone, but it was freaking awesome.

"There's also a laptop under the bed. Fritz designed all of this stuff, and built most of it himself." Mike said, then paused. "Sorry the room's a bit, you know, impersonal. Didn't want to just paint the room purple, but I had no idea what other things you liked."

Vincent walked over to the bed, not really paying attention to Mike. He stopped just at the edge of the bed and spread his arms out.

 _Whoomph_

Vincent was lying face down on the bed in his room, out cold.

Mike just stared at the sleeping man in astonishment for a little while, then shrugged and chuckled, before backing out of the room, closing the door. Since his resurrection, Vincent hadn't actually slept yet. Being knocked unconscious by various forms of magic doesn't count as rest.

Mike walked back upstairs to find that everyone else was in the staff lounge, awaiting Vincent's reaction to his new room.

Mike sighed in irritation. "C'mon guys, don't you have anything better to do?"

At that, everyone left the staff lounge, returning to the duties that they had been performing when the meeting had been called in the first place.

* * *

 _Four hours later_

Vincent woke with a start.

He was lying on something soft, in a comfortably warm room, without the feeling that he had stabbed someone for it.

He slowly got up off the bed, trying to remember the past twenty four hours. He normally woke up clear-headed, a little habit from… those days. Something phenomenal must've happened to result in him waking up groggy.

Oh yeah. He had been knocked unconscious. Four times. Five if he included the time he passed out.

He was alive again.

Vincent had known it since the previous day, right when the Puppet knocked him out. It simply hadn't registered properly until he had some actual rest.

"What time even is it…?" He mumbled to himself. He had no idea what time it had been when he fell asleep, and the only method he had to tell the time were the clocks located throughout the pizzeria. His wristwatch had been obliterated when he got springtrapped, and his internal clock was pretty bad.

Vincent stumbled over to the door to the room and opened the door. He could hear the sound of laughter from upstairs, along with what sounded like… some sort of video game?

He slowly climbed the stairs to be greeted by the sight of Mike, Fritz, Percy, and the Puppet playing a video game on the large television in the staff lounge. Jeremy and both of the shadow brothers were watching from the sidelines, cheering on the players.

"Aww come on! You can't just launch me like that!" Mike said laughing. "I only had 30 percent." Mike turned to see the newcomer. "Hey Vince, come join us!"

Vincent warily stalked into the room, staring at the television screen. It was the first time he'd actually seen a video game being played, or at least one that looked fun. On the screen, four fighters ran, jumped, and pummeled each other, in attempt to knock the others off of the stage.

It looked like fun.

A _lot_ of fun.

Before Vincent knew it, he had swapped places with Percy, and was jumping and fighting like the rest of the players. He was actually pretty good at this, especially considering that it was the first time he had played an actual video game.

"So what is this game, anyways?" Vincent asked after the round was over.

"It's called Smash. Fritz introduced it to us." Mike explained. "You take control of video game characters and use them to beat each other up. You seemed to have a really good grasp of the controls. Especially for a first-timer."

"It's fun. Really fun. It means I can kill someone with a sword and they don't get to complain about it afterwards."

Mike chuckled. "Somehow, the Puppet's better at this game than the rest of us. He has only three fingers, but, by some miracle, he can press those buttons at lightning speed."

"I don't like this game much." Percy said. "Too, um, fast paced. Not enough time to plan ahead. You can take my spot. I'll watch."

After a few more games, Vincent had decided that his favorite character was Ganon. The guy couldn't run quickly, and his mobility was crap, but he hit like a freaking truck. Plus he was apparently the main villain of a game. That was pretty cool.

The Puppet won every time though. It tended to play a white haired character named Robin. The character had a sword and used spells, like some sort of wizard. But that wasn't why the Puppet liked the character though. Apparently, Robin was a tactician, and the Puppet was able to just juggle the other players using the correct button inputs.

"I think I know why the Puppet's so good at this game" Vincent said after the Puppet won for the fifth time in a row. "It's using magic to press the buttons."

The Puppet shrugged. "I have only three fingers. I am using magic to press the buttons that I would be otherwise unable to use."

"Yeah, yeah. Cheater" Vincent teased. He felt… good. It had been forever since he had actually had fun with other people. Fun at the expense of other people was one thing, but this was more… lasting.

For the hour that they played Smash, Vincent felt like he belonged.

* * *

 _Next Day_

Vincent decided he hated shopping.

But today he could make an exception.

Mike had told him that he could pick out almost anything he wanted to decorate his room.

 _Hell. Yes._

So now Vincent was running through the store, stopping every five minutes to look at something, before running off to look at something else.

"Hurricane Vincent, coming through…" Mike muttered to himself.

Eventually Vincent settled on the things that he wanted. He grabbed himself multiple game systems, along with a respectable collection of video games, mostly ones with an M rating. He also picked up an alarm clock that was shaped like a skull, and a chair that balanced on a single leg.

In addition, Mike had gotten him to pick out a week's worth of clothing, so naturally Vincent just went with whatever caught his fancy at the time.

The cashier gave Mike a quizzical look as the bizarre assortment of items went through the register. Mike simply shrugged in response.

Mike drove back to the pizzeria, Vincent sitting in the passenger side seat, playing on a handheld gaming device that he had picked out.

"You having fun Vince?" Mike asked

"Yes. Don't talk to me." Vincent answered, frowning in concentration.

Mike chuckled as they pulled into the parking lot of the pizzeria. Parking the car and turning it off, he stepped outside and started to carry the chair inside. "Might want to pause your game Vince. We've hit our destination."

Vincent closed his game system and got outside. He grabbed several bags of clothing, then stepped into the pizzeria, to be met by a terrifying visage.

"SCREE!"

* * *

 **I do not own Smash. Come to that, I do not own anything in this fanfiction. That much should be obvious.**

 **For the sake of making my life easier, and for the sake of possible jokes, Fritz has access to things that shouldn't be possible for the time frame of 2010. Such things include Smash 4.**

 **Thanks for all of the positive reviews everyone. I read all of them, even if I don't answer or respond. Don't hesitate to ask questions, I'll answer as much as I can without spoilers.**


	32. Night Shift

Vincent jumped, reacting in a fraction of a second. He dropped the bags of clothing on the ground and, in a blur of motion, had a knife in his hand and had stabbed the creature that had screamed in his face.

Then he blinked.

"What the hell?!"

"Oh, sorry Vince." Sean said apologetically. "Didn't realize it was you…"

"How the hell do you NOT know it was me? Is there some other guy with grey eyes and white hair that I should know about?!" Vincent was fuming. "I could have had a heart attack!"

"No. You wouldn't have." The Puppet said. "You are in near perfect physical condition. I made sure of that."

"What, you don't want your killer dying of some trifling thing like fright before you get your revenge?"

"Yes." The Puppet said simply, glaring at Vincent.

"Oh." Vincent wasn't used to a direct threat from the Puppet, usually it was more subtle. "Carry on then."

The Puppet sighed and resumed its work. Currently it was finishing up creating the skin for Freddy, who was deactivated. "You'll be beginning your work as night guard tonight."

"Because I'm _totally_ looking forward to that." Vincent said sourly, putting the knife away and picking up the plastic bags he dropped on the ground.

"You won't be in any danger of any sort. Frankly I expect you'll get bored. That's why your tablet has games on it, in addition to being able to tap into the security system." The Puppet said, preoccupied by its work. "If anything, we should be paid to protect you."

"That's a comfortable thought. The victims of my murder spree are the ones who will be keeping me from harm. Lovely."

The Puppet glanced at the gray-eyed man. "You could have just not killed us in the first place."

Vincent just waved his hand and walked away. He had his reasons for his actions. But nobody else needed to know what they were.

He stopped by the parts and service room and stepped inside. Spring Bonnie was still sitting against the wall.

"We're gonna have to give you a name, because saying 'Spring Bonnie' just takes too long." Vincent muttered, crouching down and looking at the suit. Now that he got a better look at it, the scarred area from when he tore the skin made it look like the rabbit constantly had a sinister grin. Kinda like… but no. Springtrap was gone. Entirely, and forever.

"Well, might as well just call you Spring. Spring the rabbit." Vincent said, rubbing the fur of the suit. It was soft, a lot softer than the old animatronics. That was for sure.

"Bye Spring." He said, standing up and walking away. "God damn it now I'm acting like the thing's alive…" he muttered to himself.

He closed the door of the parts and service room, leaving Spring in darkness once more.

* * *

"Why did I agree to this…?" Vincent muttered under his breath. "Oh yeah, because I have no choice…"

Several hours had passed since they got back, and at this point, it was 12:00 A.M. The Puppet was sleeping, and Fredbear was turned off. Everything should be calm and quiet, right?

Wrong.

 _Ring… Ring…_

"The hell? Who's calling at this time of night?" Vincent said. He looked at his tablet, seeing an alert that said 'incoming message'.

"Uh, hello? Hello hello. Hey Vince!"

"Percy! This better be important, otherwise I'll make your life a living hell tomorrow."

"I figured that you might want me to leave you a message for your new job."

Oh, just a message. Shame, Percy was one of the few people Vincent liked just talking to.

"You should probably know, we've kept the old company policy. Um, about the injuries. Just as a refresher, I'll read it out to you. Ahem: Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. A magical place for kids and grown-ups alike, where fantasy and fun come to life. Fazbear Entertainment is not responsible for damage to property or person. Upon discovering that damage or death has occurred, a missing person report will be filed within 90 days, or as soon property and premises have been thoroughly cleaned and bleached, and the carpets have been replaced."

"Oh my god. They kept the old thing? That's hilarious, especially since Mike stresses safety so much." Vincent said, laughing.

"You, uh, shouldn't have any problems. We just hung onto this thing as a, uh, failsafe. I-I'm not saying that there's any chance you'll get, um, hurt. That's not the implication."

Vincent sobered. Percy was a terrible liar.

"So, as of yet, only two of the animatronics are ready to perform. They don't like to just sit there at night though."

"They move." Vincent said.

"They tend to wander a bit. It's nothing to worry about, really. Just don't, uhm, let them in your office."

"Thanks Captain Obvious."

"You, uh, should already know about the Puppet. Uh, keep the music box wound, and you shouldn't have to worry about anything. Much."

Vincent checked the Prize Corner camera. There was a button that toggled on and off to wind the music box. Vincent chuckled, then just hit the button, intending to keep it on all night.

"Just don't overload the music box. If that happens, uh, well… you should be fine."

Wait, overload the music box?

"Moving on, Fredbear shouldn't be any trouble. He's a big softie really. He did try to enter the guard office a couple times while I was watching over the place, but otherwise he didn't do much."

Vincent checked the cameras, trying to locate the golden bear. He eventually found him staring back up at the camera. Fredbear looked terrifying. Both eyes had vanished, leaving only white pinpoints to mark his gaze. The normally soft features of his face were angular, making Vince get the impression that Fredbear was extremely angry.

Vincent shuddered, that was creepy.

"He might occasionally teleport though."

Right, because the yellow bear only needed to be _more_ terrifying.

"If he enters your room without using the doors, just, uhm, ignore him. He might make you see some really weird stuff, but he won't hurt you. Not that he would hurt you if he just walked in. That's not what I mean."

Vincent checked on the cameras again. Four o'clock already? Fast night…

"That should about cover it. Remember, we are not responsible for any injuries and/or death. Don't worry, you'll do fine. See you in the morning. 'Bye."

 _Click_

That was… unnerving.

Vincent checked the cameras. Clown doll was still in its box, apparently the music box hadn't 'overloaded' yet. Fredbear was at the show stage.

The cameras all went blank for a second, and Vincent could hear a faint song throughout the building.

 _All around the mulberry bush…_

 _The monkey chased the weasel…_

 _The monkey thought 'twas all in good fun…_

 _Pop! Goes the weasel…_

Vince was confused. Wasn't the music box wound up…? But wait, Percy said something about the music box overloading…

 _A penny for a spool of thread…_

 _A penny for a needle-_

 _That's the way the money goes,_

 _Pop! Goes the weasel…_

Vincent was panicking now. The Puppet was speeding through the building, making a beeline for his office

 _Jimmy's got the whooping cough…_

 _And Timmy's got the measles…_

 _That's the way the story goes,_

 _Pop! Goes the weasel…_

Vincent slammed both door buttons, sealing himself in the room.

 _All around the mulberry bush…_

 _The monkey chased the weasel…_

 _The monkey thought 'twas all in good fun…_

Vincent waited nervously for the last part of the song.

 _Pop! Goes the weasel!_

Something black streaked across the room, forcing both doors open and grabbing the tablet out of Vincent's hands.

"What the hell just happened…?" Vincent said confused. He was expecting to be killed, but that wasn't what had happened. He looked down to see that his tablet was completely missing.

When he looked back up, there was a golden bear sitting limp on the ground in front of him. The bear was twitching and strange speech emanated from within it.

 _Ding… Dong… Ding… Dong…_

Suddenly, the bear just vanished, and the lights in the building turned back on.

Vincent took a steadying breath.

Well, that was one night at Freddy's over with.

* * *

 **This version of "Pop Goes the Weasel" is the one I grew up with.**

 **In other news, Vincent's night shift isn't going to be nearly as boring as he initially thought.**


	33. Opening Day

"What the hell Mike?!"

Mike looked up from his desk in the manager's office. Currently he was working on paying the bills, managing taxes, and answering letters asking when the opening date would be. "Vincent, you're going to have to be a bit more specific than that."

"You know damn well what I mean! The animatronics tried to kill me!" Vincent shouted, furious.

Mike sighed. "First, keep your voice down. Second, watch your language. Third, what do you mean they tried to kill you?"

"The Puppet stole my tablet, and Fredbear teleported into the security office!"

"Vince, Fredbear teleports everywhere. That doesn't mean he was trying to kill you." Mike paused. "And where exactly is the tablet, if the Puppet stole it?"

"It should be in the box with that damn doll." Vincent said, starting to calm down.

"Let's check then." Mike stood up and led Vincent out of the office to the Prize Corner. "Puppet? You in there?" He said, tapping the top of the box that the Puppet called home.

"Pop Goes the Weasel" began to play from the box as the lid opened and the Puppet floated out. "Yes Mike?" It asked in its neutral voice.

"What exactly do you have in the box with you right now?" Mike asked.

The Puppet climbed out of its box to give Mike a clear look. The only contents consisted of various prizes that could be won by anyone with enough tickets. Plushies of Spring and Goldie, top hats in purple and black, and other memorabilia; but no tablet.

"Thank you Puppet. Sorry for bothering you." Mike said. "C'mon Vince, you probably just left it in the guard office." Mike began to walk back to his office.

"Alright you creepy doll, what did you do with my tablet?" Vincent asked.

The Puppet's face seemed genuinely confused. "What?"

"Never mind…" Vincent said, leaving the Prize Corner.

The Puppet watched him leave, then closed the lid of its box, the sound of "My Grandfather's Clock" playing once again.

* * *

"Just a few finishing touches before he's ready to wake up." Fritz said.

It was just one day until the pizzeria opened, and they needed the mascot to at least see what was going on for the first week of operation. In order to make this possible, Fritz was putting in the last few sensors that would complete the bear's arsenal of senses.

"So, when Freddy wakes up, what exactly will he be doing?" Vincent asked curiously.

"Nothing for a while. He'll need to become acclimated to his upgrades before he can go on the show stage. Speaking of upgrades, these are… finished!" Fritz finished triumphantly, placing the last sensor.

"Freddy, wake up pal." Mike said, activating the bear.

Freddy's sky blue eyes snapped open. He had undergone extreme changes since the last time he was online. For starters, he looked like an actual humanoid bear, and it was extremely difficult to tell that he was an animatronic. He was tall, a good seven feet, and heavily built. He wasn't necessarily muscular or fat, but he was large. The newest design included five fingers as well, and the same magically created skin that both Spring and Fredbear had, except the color was brown.

Freddy sat up and blinked a few times. Like the other two animatronics and the Puppet, he now had the same facial mobility as a living being, and he was testing it out. The bear stopped and looked at Vincent, giving him a death stare.

"What's he doing here?" The animatronic asked in his deep voice. "Last I saw, he was bleeding out in a suit."

Mike sighed. He knew the animatronics hated Vincent, and they had good reason, but Vince would be necessary if things were to work out properly. "Vincent has been given a second chance. If he doesn't succeed, he'll be trapped in this world eternally." Mike gave Vincent a stern look. "Without any way to interact with it."

"If I die, I swear to god I will haunt you forever Schmidt." Vincent threatened.

"Good luck with that." The Puppet said from its position across the room, working on another sheet of artificial skin, this one with lavender fur. "Your little stunt three years ago completely ruined your chances of surviving without a body. Making phantoms corporeal isn't something you can just do without consequences."

Freddy seemed confused. "What exactly are you talking about?"

Mike answered him. "Vincent died inside the rabbit suit, as you probably guessed. Fortunately -or unfortunately- he possessed the suit he died in. Three years ago, I found him. He had called up and controlled you, BB, Chica, and Foxy. To make a long story short, he overextended himself, and left himself permanently weak." He paused. "Magically speaking."

Freddy shrugged. "I never really understood magic that well. I'll take your word for it." The bear looked around. "I take it that the others are still sleeping?"

Mike nodded in confirmation. "We'll turn the other three on next, for now I need you to observe the events in the pizzeria. We're opening tomorrow, and while your name is on the front, you won't be able to perform for about a week."

Freddy frowned. "A week?"

"You have a full five senses now. You need to get accustomed to them, and that takes about a week." Fritz answered. "I know you love performing, but we can't speed up the process much."

Freddy nodded in understanding. "Very well then. In one week."

* * *

 _Opening Day_

The new pizzeria was a major hit. Many of the people who had been avid patrons of the previous two locations had grown up, and now had children of their own. This naturally meant that, although the franchise had a bad reputation, there was a massive turnout.

Vincent found that he really enjoyed portraying the enigmatic and oftentimes hyperactive Spring, and much to his surprise, he really liked the way that the children laughed at his jokes. Once an hour, he and Fredbear would stand on the stage, performing a routine of jokes, songs, and skits.

Whenever it wasn't time to perform onstage, both of the golden performers would wander through the party room, making many children extremely happy.

In the Prize Corner, the Puppet was a massive hit. The new face meant that it was no longer cold and creepy, but warm and friendly. Children who had played the arcade games in the main area would put their tickets into a machine and receive a receipt that stated the amount they had won. They would then turn the receipt in to the Puppet and receive the prize that they picked out. Occasionally a child would throw a temper tantrum, and the Puppet would arrive with a present to calm them down.

The only problem was the parents.

"So, how do they look so alive?" One mother asked Mike.

"Our tech crew is extremely good." Mike answered.

"How do you get them to act so lifelike?" another parent asked.

"We've got the best AI accessible to us in these animatronics. They have thousands of preprogrammed responses." Mike paused. "However, both of these animatronics are specialized suits that can be used both as animatronics and suits."

Thankfully, the parents didn't ask if there actually were people in both suits. That would have led to either lying or an uncomfortable situation.

Vincent had just finished a joke routine with Fredbear and was walking around the party room. Fredbear was the recipient of more attention than Vincent, but that was fine. Vincent didn't know if he could handle the constant hugs and children clamoring for attention that Fredbear endured.

He looked around. The children seemed to be having fun, playing arcade games, talking to Fredbear, or just chattering amongst themselves.

All in all, it seemed like nothing could make this go wrong.

Unfortunately, there is always something that can go wrong.

Vincent's attention was grabbed by four men entering the building. They didn't seem to be the usual partygoers, and they hid their faces from the cameras. As he watched, all four spread out across the room, seemingly harmless.

But Vincent knew better.

He was close enough to one of them to see the whites of the man's eyes. He knew that if he got any closer the man would likely reposition, and that would make things a bit… difficult.

Then, in synchronization, all four men pulled on ski masks and drew pistols.

"EVERYBODY DOWN!"

* * *

 **Isn't this an interesting scenario?**


	34. Takedown

"EVERYBODY GET ON THE GROUND!" The robber closest to the door shouted.

Vincent looked around. All over the pizzeria, children and parents were cowering on the ground. One of the robbers had his gun pointed directly at the back of Mike's head. Percy was still in the kitchen, preparing the food, while Fritz was nowhere in sight.

"Hey, you yellow bastard. Get on the ground!" The man nearest to Vincent said.

"Me?" Vincent said in pretend confusion.

"Are there any other furries in this room? Get on the ground!" The man said again, gesturing with his gun.

"Well, Fredbear's over…" Vincent looked around the room. Fredbear was nowhere in sight. "Never mind, he vanished." Vincent finished, shrugging.

"Don't make me tell you again!" the man seemed furious.

"Don't worry, I'm on it." Vincent said nonchalantly, kneeling down as if to get on the ground.

"That's right you rabbit moron." The man said, turning to look around the room.

"…you're an idiot…" Vincent mumbled to himself. Vincent had been planning out his course of action. He had a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other.

And both wanted him to make these bastards pay.

He used his positioning to launch himself towards the robber who had been waving the gun around. Before the man could do more than turn, he had grabbed the robber's arm, pulling the man off balance, and knocked the robber unconscious with a quick jab. Before the gun fell to the ground, Vincent grabbed it out of the air.

Vincent made a mad dash towards the next closest robber.

 ** _Bang! Bang! Bang!_**

Three gunshots rang out, but Vincent didn't even flinch. The man was unprepared for a nearly seven foot tall golden rabbit to blitz towards him, and unprepared men with guns were less able to attack than an unarmed man who had situational awareness.

He grabbed the man's arm and twisted it until he heard a _Crack!_ He then let go of the man's arms and grabbed the gun with his empty hand.

Vincent whirled to see both of the remaining robbers gazing on in amazement, neither of them had their guns pointed at him. Vincent raised both of the guns in his hands and pointed them at the two robbers. "It's really sad when you try to rob a kid's pizzeria. It's even sadder when you get stopped by the _mascot_ of all people."

From the prize corner there was the sound of someone shouting in terror. It was immediately followed by a high-pitched scream and the sound of children giggling. Sounded like there was a fifth burglar, and he had the foolish idea to try and rob the Prize Corner.

The man standing behind Mike just dropped his gun on the ground and got on his knees. The fourth and final robber just bolted. He didn't get far, however.

As the man neared the doors, his feet just slipped out from under him. In one corner of the room, two barely visible silhouettes high-fived each other.

All of these things happened in less than thirty seconds.

Vincent walked over to the robber who had landed on his back and looked down at him. "Wow, at least the other two were beaten by an actual person. Your colleague had the sensibility to surrender. But you? You went and got taken out by _pizza grease_." Vincent laughed. "That's really funny."

Mike stood up from his seat and walked into the Prize Corner. He came back carrying another man with a ski mask. The odd part wasn't that Mike was strong enough to carry the man in one hand, but that the man was covered in what looked like marionette strings. No surprise who the culprit was here.

Just then, a trio of police officers burst into the building. "Looks like Percy made some use of his position in the kitchen." Vincent muttered to himself.

The Police officers all had their guns trained on him. Vincent had to keep himself from saying 'look, this isn't what it looks like'. That phrase just causes infinite suspicion. Instead he answered them with "About time you got here!"

"Officers! My name is Michael Schmidt, I am the owner and manager of this pizzeria!" Mike said. "Please excuse Spring, he's the one who disabled the robbers, and he's a little bit cranky because of it."

All three police officers lowered their weapons, but didn't stop staring at Vincent.

"What are you looking at?" Vincent demanded. Then he looked down at himself.

There were three bullet holes right in the middle of his chest.

"Oh." Vincent said, and fainted.

* * *

When Vincent came to, he was lying on his bed. Mike was sitting on the chair in his room watching over him.

"Thank god you woke up." Mike said relieved.

"Mike. What the hell happened?" Vincent asked, still not quite awake.

"Well, after you passed out, I told the police officers that you had had a stressful day, what with it being your first day on the job. I also told them that the suit was bulletproof, and that you were fine." Mike explained.

"The suit's bulletproof?" Vincent said surprised.

Mike sighed. "I have no idea. Theoretically speaking, yes. The endoskeleton would block the bullets."

"You don't KNOW?!"

"It was the only way to keep you from the coroner."

Vincent looked down at himself. He was still in the Spring suit. "Why am I still in this thing?"

"We couldn't get it off you." Mike said.

"What do you mean you couldn't get it off me?! Did you get the Puppet to take it off me?!" Vincent said in confusion.

"None of us could get the latches to budge. Not even the Puppet." Mike explained. "I think it has to do with the fact that your spirit is bound to it."

"Couldn't the Puppet do some of that weird magic crap?"

Mike sighed. "Just take the suit off."

One minute later, Vincent was standing in the middle of the room looking at the suit.

"So… how do you feel Vince?" Mike asked carefully.

"Not… too good." The grey eyed man replied. "Having… a bit of trouble… breathing."

"Just… stay calm. I'll get the Puppet." Mike said, slowly leaving the room.

Vincent looked down at his chest.

There was blood spreading across the front of his shirt.

And right over his chest, three bullet wounds.

The last thing Vincent saw was the door to his room slamming open.

Then the world went black.

* * *

 **I've been planning this sequence since the start of the story. Just a little info for those who may be wondering.**


	35. Back Again

When he woke up, he felt three things.

Pain. Not much, and it was more like an ache than anything else.

Anger. Mostly at Mike.

The table.

 _Well this is déjà vu._ He thought to himself.

Vincent opened his eyes and looked around the room. Back in parts and service. Nobody else in the room though. Unless he counted Spring, who was sitting in the corner.

Vincent grunted and swung his legs over the edge of the table, before remembering exactly what had happened the last time he was conscious. He looked down at himself to see that his purple uniform had been replaced by a clean white button up shirt.

Vincent opened his shirt and looked at his chest. There were three spots on his chest, as if he had fading bruises there.

"The hell…?" He muttered.

The man stood up and buttoned his shirt back up. He hobbled over to Spring and looked closely at the chest of the animatronic, where the bullets hit it. The fur had already grown back, and the skin was mostly healed, but since he knew what he was looking for, he found the same fading bruises that he had on his own chest.

Behind him, he heard the sound of the door opening. Then a voice broke his confused ponderings. "Glad to see you're awake Vince."

"Mike, mind explaining what the hell happened?" Vincent asked innocently

"We were lucky you survived. Puppet said that it was a very close call." Mike said.

"Oh, is that all it was then? A 'close call'?" Vincent said, becoming agitated.

"I'm glad to see that you've already recovered. We had to go for a day with just one animatronic, you'd be surprised how many kids were upset the Spring the rabbit couldn't perform." Mike continued as if Vincent had said nothing.

"Holy hell Mike! I was shot in the chest! Three times!" Vincent exploded.

"Calm down Vince, you've got nothing to worry about!" Mike said soothingly. "You've fully recovered. It's like you haven't been shot in the first place."

Vincent started to calm down, but he still needed answers. "How long has it been?"

"You've been out for a day. We had to tell everyone that you were sick and that the attack yesterday had spurred it on." Mike answered.

"How bad was the damage?"

"Well, healing Spring was apparently a cakewalk. You, on the other hand, had both lungs punctured and a bullet grazed your heart. It was fortunate that the Puppet can regenerate tissue far easier than creating it, otherwise it would've taken a full week." Mike replied.

Vincent sighed. "Well, it could've been worse."

That gave Mike pause. "How so?"

"I could've died."

Mike chuckled nervously. "Yes… that would've made the situation worse for sure."

* * *

"So, we're activating the other three now?" Vincent asked.

Everyone was in the main party area looking at Foxy, Chica and Bonnie. Fritz and the Puppet had managed to complete the trio in time for them to be turned on before the third day of operation.

All three looked next to nothing like their original forms.

Foxy was the most like his old form. Still the shortest of the four animatronics that had been the mascots of Fazbear Entertainment, he was still over six feet tall. He retained his golden yellow eyes and red fur. He had a runner's body, with his brown shorts still being part of his look. His hook could now be taken off and replaced by a hand, and like with Freddy, he now had five fingers on each hand.

Bonnie now had a more broad-shouldered form. His red eyes no longer seemed harsh, but kind. His lavender colored fur was the softest of the current animatronics, but he still possessed more physical prowess than any of the others. Apart from the broad shoulders, he was lean, similar to an athlete. As with the other animatronics, he had five fingers per hand.

Chica was the most different from her previous incarnation. Her body shape was slightly chubby, but instead of making her seem overweight, it simply seemed to be part of her build. She was covered in soft yellow feathers, making her seem extremely huggable. It was very difficult to mistake her for a duck now, as she quite clearly lacked the wide bill of one. Instead of arms, she had wings that ended in hand-like feathers, giving her the same manual dexterity as the other animatronics.

All of them had been given the ability to utilize all five senses and feel pain. In addition, all of them had access to full facial mobility, and they were capable of consuming and "digesting" food.

"Alright, turning on Chica first. She's the one who's least likely to just go ballistic and try to kill Vince." Fritz said, flipping a switch.

The yellow animatronic's purple eyes snapped open, and she scanned the room. "Oh hello Mikey! How long has it been?"

"Hi Chica. It's been about sixteen years since you were last online." Mike answered.

Chica then seemed to notice Vincent. "Oh. It's him."

"I don't like it either Feathers. One minute I'm dead for good, the next I'm alive and being forced to work for Schmidt." Vincent said.

"Vincent does seem to have changed a bit. At the very least, his primary goals are no longer murder." Freddy informed Chica.

Chica shrugged. "Well, if Freddy says you've changed, I'll take his word for it. Welcome to the family Vincent!"

Bonnie wasn't so welcoming.

As soon as the rabbit was turned on, his eyes locked onto Vincent and he started shouting. "You! You should be dead!"

"Calm down Bonnie. I brought him back." The Puppet informed him. "He has to behave, or else he'll go back to being dead." The Puppet paused and glared at Vincent. " _Permanently._ "

Bonnie walked up to Vincent and glared down at the man. "If you do anything. _Anything._ To hurt the others, I will tear you apart."

"Glad we've got that settled." Vincent replied.

Foxy was furious.

"I'll rip ye apart ye backstabbin' bastard!"

Both Freddy and Bonnie had to hold the fox back from forcibly dismembering Vincent.

"Foxy! Calm down!" Mike said.

"I will NOT calm down! That grey-eyed devil murdered us!" Foxy shouted

"Do not force me to deactivate you." The Puppet said.

That made Foxy stop.

"Now then, if you are willing to behave civilly, we can explain the situation to you."

"Fine, fine. Let me go." Foxy said.

Freddy and bonnie slowly let go of the fox.

"Alright, get ta explainin' what's goin' on."

"Vincent has been resurrected for the sole purpose of obtaining redemption. It may not happen quickly, or even at all. We have multiple measures in place to ensure he doesn't do anything against his best interests. He literally cannot leave the pizzeria for long periods of time, murdering someone will result in his immediate and permanent termination, and any threat to the children will result in instant pain." The Puppet explained.

Foxy gave Vincent a glare. "Fine then. If he does anythin' to the others, he'll be lookin' fer his head."

"Get in line…" Bonnie muttered.

Mike clapped his hands. "Now that we're done with the death threats, let's get on with more important things."

"Like what?" Chica asked.

"Like getting you guys acclimated to your upgrades."

* * *

 **Vincent didn't die, which is nice.**

 **This chapter's a bit later than I would've liked. Had some things that delayed it.**


	36. Round 2

"I regret everything."

Vincent was back in the security office, watching his tablet.

 _Ring… Ring…_

"Oh joy, another message from Percy." Vincent muttered, pressing the 'play message' button.

"Hello, hello? Uh, you should probably know… the other animatronics, uh, the ones we just turned on. They, uh, also have a habit of wandering."

"Just what I needed, a total of six murderous robots after me."

"Uh, you shouldn't have anything to worry about though. Just use your lights and make sure to close the doors. You should know though, uh, if you keep the doors closed too long, it might cause the power redistribution to drain the music box faster."

"That's nice to know. Keeping the other machines out will increase the speed at which that doll can leave its box." Vincent said to himself.

"So, Chica and Bonnie are pretty straightforward. They'll stand in the blind spots outside your doors. Just close the door and they should leave after a bit. Foxy's a little less easy to understand. He'll use his speed to dash to your office. Just keep an eye on him, and he won't catch you by surprise. Uh, as for Freddy. He's, uhm, unpredictable. He'll try his best to enter your office when you aren't expecting it. He's… very clever. Fortunately he doesn't move much, otherwise you would have a lot more to worry about."

"So Freddy's lazy, but smart, Bonnie and Chica are both straightforward fools, and Foxy will blitz to my office." Vincent muttered. "Not to mention Clown Doll in his box trying to murder me and/or steal my tablet; and then there's Fredbear, who'll teleport into my room from time to time and drive me literally insane. Fun."

"Uhm, if Fredbear gets into your room while there's someone at either door, he might force the door open. So uh, to counteract this, just ignore him and he'll leave you alone." There was a pause. "Probably. Just be careful, monitor Foxy and Freddy, ignore Fredbear, and _don't_ ignore the Puppet. Good luck, and see you tomorrow."

 _Click._

"Pleasant…"

Vincent checked his cameras. _Lessee… Foxy, Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy are still in parts and service…. Fredbear hasn't moved… Puppet's box needs to be wound up._

Vincent paused, Chica and Bonnie had moved. Bonnie seemed to be making a beeline for the left door, while Chica was wandering throughout the pizzeria at random.

Vincent checked through the cameras. Bonnie was missing… no wait. He was in the supply closet. "What…? Why is Bonnie sitting in the closet?" Vincent shook his head. "Whatever… where's the duck…?"

Vincent changed cameras to find Chica, then jumped in surprise. The normally harmless-seeming chicken had nothing more than white dots for eyes, and she was staring directly into the camera. "Geez, sorry, not a duck."

He swapped cameras to the Prize Corner to wind up the music box, only to get another surprise. Freddy was standing in the Prize Corner, barely visible behind the box that the Puppet lived in, and the Puppet was beginning to climb out of its box. Vincent quickly toggled on the music box and checked on the parts and service room.

Foxy was gone.

Vincent quickly closed both doors. Less than a second later there was the sound of someone pounding on the left door, then running off.

"Well that was a close one…" Vincent muttered, wiping his forehead. He was beginning to sweat now, Foxy had gotten closer to getting in than either the Puppet or Fredbear, with the exception of when the yellow bear would teleport.

Vincent opened the doors again and checked on the Puppet. It seemed like having both doors closed caused the music box to drain considerably faster than it was being wound up. He needed to keep both doors open for a little while in order to get back to a safe buffer before the box ran out.

Foxy was back in the parts and service room, Bonnie was still in the closet, and Chica…

Vincent did a double take. Chica was in the kitchen, humming to herself and making pizza. The man shrugged. If Chica wanted to waste time, that was fine by him.

Freddy was nowhere to be seen.

A deep laugh echoed through the building, alerting Vincent to the fact that Freddy was still on the move. Checking through the cameras, Vincent finally spotted the brown bear standing in the corner of the main party area, nearly hidden in the shadows. On the complete other side of the room, Fredbear was standing in the open looking at the camera. Without warning, the camera flickered, and Fredbear simply vanished.

Vincent looked up from his camera to see the yellow bear sitting limp in the middle of his office. This wasn't exactly something that Vincent was worried about, as he had encountered the golden animatronic in this scenario multiple times so far.

Ignoring the teleporting bear, Vincent checked on Freddy again. The bear was missing from the main party area, and a laugh echoed through the building.

"How nobody else hears this is beyond me…" Vincent said to himself.

Flicking through the cameras, Freddy was nowhere to be seen, and Bonnie had finally left his supply closet. Vincent turned on the lights for his right then left door. Upon seeing the rabbit stealthily creeping towards him, he pressed the left door button, sealing Bonnie out.

Vincent took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Bonnie was surprisingly difficult to detect. Despite being just under seven feet tall and weighing several hundred pounds, the rabbit could move silently. It was a significant difference from Chica, as the chicken was quite loud as she moved through the building.

Fortunately, Bonnie didn't stay at the door very long, allowing Vincent to open it back up and check on the Puppet. The music box was nearing its overload point, so he quickly switched it off.

Vincent looked at the time and sighed in relief. It was nearing six o'clock, and that meant that he could leave this claustrophobia inducing room. As the clock ticked the seconds along, he heard a deep laughter directly behind him, causing him to freeze in his seat.

Freddy had gotten into the office, and he hadn't even noticed.

Just as he was sure the bear would attack him, the tablet chimed six, and all the lights in the building turned on. Vincent checked the cameras. Fredbear was back onstage, and the only animatronic that wasn't in its predesignated place was Chica. The yellow bird was still humming to herself as she made pizzas.

Vincent shook his head in disbelief. Five animatronics trying to kill him, and Chica goes to make pizza.

"Well, that's that" Vincent said, leaving the office.

"Hopefully the toys won't be this bad…"

* * *

 **Mostly a filler chapter.**

 **To answer Rikku - 056: The spell that punishes Vincent for killing someone also takes intent into account. If Vincent were to deliberately kill someone, it would kill him instantly. If Vincent is defending himself or warding off an intruder, the spell will not kill him.**

 **Hope this is a good answer.**


	37. Pizza

It was funny really, the amount of sleep he needed now.

Since being resurrected by the Puppet, Vincent hadn't really needed more than a couple hours of sleep to be fully rested. It fit so well with the fact that he was both night guard and performer.

It wasn't the only change that had occurred either. He no longer felt much pain. Even when he was shot in the chest, he only felt like he couldn't breathe. Apparently it was nearly impossible to properly repair nerves, so while he had a sense of touch, his pain receptors were damaged to the point of numbness.

He was also notably faster and stronger than when he was first alive. He still didn't have the same physical strength as Mike did, and Foxy was considerably faster than him, but he was still faster and stronger than a man of his build should be. Coupled with his incredible fighting skill, he had become a dangerous adversary.

When he was wearing the Spring suit, all of his strengths were greatly amplified. He was faster, stronger, and more energetic. This was easily explained by the fact that he was spirit bound to the suit, but there were a few things that couldn't be so easily explained. For instance, when he was shot, he didn't even bleed until after he had gotten out of the suit.

But that wasn't the problem today. No, today's problem was something that was a bit more difficult to solve.

They had run out of supplies to make pizza, and Chica was freaking out about it.

When a human freaks out, they might shout, maybe punch something.

When an animatronic freaks out, you wind up with holes in the walls.

"Chica calm down!" Mike said, trying to prevent the chicken from breaking any more walls. "We'll get some more supplies!"

"What am I supposed to do?!" Chica cried in despair. Ever since she had been badly damaged in '87 she had needed to be doing something, or she would begin to panic and freak out.

"You can help to clean up your mess." Vincent said.

"Vince, don't be rude." Mike scolded. "Although the way he said it wasn't very nice, his suggestion is helpful. We will need help to clean up before we open for the day." He said to Chica.

The yellow animatronic took a calming breath, or at least seemed to. One of the things that the animatronics didn't have was lungs. In almost any other way they resembled living beings. "Okay… I'll help clean up. I'm sorry."

"It's alright. We'll be back in a couple hours In the meantime, Puppet will repair the walls." Mike said. "See you soon."

* * *

Vincent checked his watch. There was only thirty minutes until the pizzeria was going to open for the day. Now that Chica was cooking, people were complimenting them on the incredible food, as well as the incredibly lifelike animatronics and friendly staff.

The only problem was that Chica never _stopped_ cooking. In one day she had burned through all of the backup supplies. Percy, who had been the cook before Chica had been reactivated, had stockpiled what he believed to be enough for a week. Chica had gone through it all, and the interesting part was that the people ate it all. So not only were they out of supplies, but they had very little backup pizza.

When Chica was able to perform, odds were that she would be making pizza less often. She had an odd need to be doing something at all times, so she was cooking more or less nonstop. Chica wasn't the only one to have a bizarre quirk left over from the time they had all broken down. Bonnie had grown angry, holding grudges far longer now. Foxy had a tendency to just stop talking in the middle of a conversation and gaze off into space. Freddy, although he didn't have any obvious problems, was always thinking, planning, and plotting; he couldn't calm down, regardless of the scenario.

"Hey Mike, we'd better be getting back soon." Vincent informed his boss.

"One moment Vince, let me just place this order for the next month." Mike said, focusing on the paperwork.

"Mike, its thirty minutes until opening time." Vincent said impatiently.

"Okay then, let's go." Mike replied, finishing with his signature.

They arrived back at the pizzeria with ten minutes until opening time.

They were greeted by the sight of two men trying to pick the lock on the front door.

"What is it about Freddy Fazbear's pizza that attracts criminals…?" Mike muttered to himself before climbing out of his car. "Hey you! What do you think you're doing?" He shouted.

Both men jumped in fear, then dropped their lock picking tools and drew knives.

"I'll take care of Bozo and Buffoon. You can take the stuff in." Vincent informed Mike.

Mike shrugged. "If you think you can do it, go right ahead." Mike turned and began to unload the car.

"Alright boys, let's get this over with." Vincent said.

"What makes you think you can handle both of us at once?" One of the robbers said.

"Well, you remember that little fiasco three days ago? The one with five armed men attempting to rob the very building you're trying to get into?" Vincent paused to see their reactions. "I'm the one who disabled four of them." Now they started to blanch. "So put your knives down now, and leave. You technically haven't done anything wrong yet, so if you leave now, you might not wind up in jail."

The two robbers looked at each other, then rushed Vincent.

"Can't say I didn't warn you." Vincent said with a shrug. In the blink of an eye, Vincent had disarmed the two robbers and had them both pinned to the ground. "Alright, Mike. Just remember to say they initiated the fight."

"Got it." Mike said, carrying the supplies inside.

Less than five minutes later, the police had picked up the two crooks and taken them away.

Going inside, the damage that had been done earlier was entirely gone. It was almost as if it had been magically repaired. Of course, it had been magically repaired, but that was beside the point.

"Hey Puppet, we had an attempted break-in." Mike said. "Please check to make sure the lock isn't broken."

"Just as well whoever it was didn't get in, we already have one maniac."

* * *

 **If it isn't obvious who the Puppet is referring to, you may need to reread most, if not all, of the story.**

 **Just some more filler, along with a situation assessment.**


	38. Bleeding Out

It was nearing closing time for the pizzeria's fourth day of operation. Chica had been making pizza like nobody's business, and the people were enjoying it, many of them asking who the cook was. Naturally, Mike couldn't tell them the whole truth, but the half-truths he told them were good enough answers for the parents.

Vincent was watching the children as they flocked around Fredbear, giving the yellow bear hugs and asking him questions. Spring was still popular, but it was obvious that Fredbear far outshone the rabbit in popularity.

Suddenly, he felt someone tugging at his arm. Vincent turned his head to see a little girl trying to get his attention. "Mister Spring, can you help me find my mommy?" The little girl asked him.

Vincent fought a war in his head. On one hand, he would ordinarily ignore this child. It wasn't really his concern to help out lost children. On the other hand, it actually was his responsibility to look after this little girl; and as he had noted before, being in the Spring suit made him feel… different from usual.

"Let's take a look around and see if we can find her, okay?" Vincent said in his 'Spring' voice.

"Okay." The little girl said, sniffling.

"What's your name?"

"Angela."

"Well Angela, let's go see if we can find your mom." Vincent said.

Vincent led the little girl through the main show area, the whole time telling himself that he just needed to remember where the safe room was, then he could be rid of the brat.

"Mister Spring, where are we?" Angela asked him

 _Damn, forgot. The new location doesn't have a safe room._ He quickly thought up an explanation. "Sorry Angela, I'm a little bit confused today. Let's get back to the main show area."

As the two entered the main stage area, Angela spotted her parents and ran off, leaving Vincent standing in the hallway.

"Thank you for coming everyone! Come again soon!" Fredbear called out to the departing patrons.

The doors closed for the day with the click of the lock, and Vincent began to undo the latches on the suit.

"Vincent." Mike said, walking up to the pale man. "Don't think I didn't see what you were going to do."

"Can't imagine what you're talking about." Vincent said innocently

"The little girl that you dragged through the building? I saw you stop at the end of that hallway as if you were looking for the hidden safe room door." Mike replied, sounding angry. "You know what will happen if you go back to killing kids!"

Vincent was surprised. This was the first time he had heard Mike angry. Frustrated, yes, but never angry. "Look, I didn't do it. You kept the kid from danger by not building a safe room."

"Why did you do it Vince?" Mike said, no longer sounding angry. Instead he was just… disappointed.

"Force of habit." Vincent answered.

"Vincent, please don't make me write you off as a lost cause."

Vincent sighed. "Look, I don't know any more. Dying really screws with your memory. You told me that the Puppet didn't even remember if they were a boy or girl? I can't remember my reasons for killing those kids."

Mike looked at Vincent sadly. "Just… don't do it again. Please…" The green eyed man walked off.

Vincent climbed out of the Spring suit and picked it up. It wasn't nearly as heavy as it looked. He carried it to the parts and service room before his emotions finally caught up to the conversation that he had with Mike earlier.

"Goddammit…" Vincent muttered to himself as he set Spring down in his corner. "Goddammit!" He shouted, and punched the wall.

There was a loud _Crack_ , and Vincent's hand went through the wall. Vincent's eyes widened in shock. It hadn't hurt much, to be honest. More like a bruise than broken bones…

Pulling his hand out of the wall, Vincent took a look at his fist. The skin and muscle on his fingers was completely destroyed, showing the white bone underneath.

Except they weren't white, and they weren't bones.

He had a metal skeleton.

Vincent leaned down and looked through the hole in the wall.

"Hi Fredbear…"

* * *

Vincent knocked on the door with his right hand. Seeing as how his left hand was kinda obliterated, it was probably better to not damage it any more than already.

"Come in" The answering voice said.

Vincent pushed the door open and entered Mike's room. It was the same size as Vincent's room, but with several notable differences. First, there were two beds in the room, Mike was laying on one and watching some cartoon about these twins who were visiting this crazy little town for the summer. The other bed seemed occupied, but there wasn't anything moving on it. There were pictures of the older Freddy Fazbear locations on Mike's bedside table, along with a picture of a younger Mike, Vincent, and Percy.

"Hello Vincent, what's up?" Mike asked, pausing his television show.

"Mike I have a few questions." Vincent said. "First, what's up with this?" He raised his left hand. It was still locked into a fist, due to the fact that the muscles that would be used to uncurl his hand had been obliterated.

Mike looked at the ruined hand, eyes wide. "Well, we had to replace some of your skeleton with metal bones… the Puppet can't recreate human bones properly…"

Vincent nodded, he had expected an answer like this. "Alright then." He drew a long knife from somewhere about his person. "What about this?" before Mike could react, he had flayed his forearm, revealing more metallic bone structure.

"As I said, we had to replace some of your skeleton…" Mike began again.

"Wait, I'm not done yet." Vincent seemed oblivious to the copious amount of blood running down his arm. Before Mike could say anything else, the pale man had sliced open the front of his chest, revealing ribs made of the same metal. "And this?"

"Vincent, please, stop cutting yourself open!" Mike was beginning to grow worried. Vincent was losing a lot of blood, and unless Mike missed his guess…

Vincent then fell over, flat on the ground. He had sliced himself open too far, and was bleeding out. He would be dead in…

"Puppet!" Mike called out.

"Hey Mike…" Vincent said hoarsely, he was still conscious. "Where are my-" He coughed up some blood. "-my answers…?"

The last thing Vincent heard was "Pop Goes the Weasel"

* * *

 **... It's the best thing that I do...**


	39. Resurrection

When Vincent woke up, he felt three thi- wait. That's already happened twice.

Vincent sat upright, feeling lightheaded. Let's see… breathing, check. Eyes working, check. Skin flayed, nope.

Vincent rubbed his arm. The area that he had flayed off was healed, feeling similar to a cut that had already healed most of the way. His left hand was the same way. Guess that was good. Would suck to have his primary hand completely disabled.

Vincent looked down at his clothing. Looked like most of it had been replaced. Probably for the better, seeing as he had bled out in them.

Wait a second. He had bled out entirely. Nobody could possibly survive that much injury, not even with the Puppet's healing care.

But that meant…

Vincent sat back down on the table in shock. He had died. He was certain of it. There was no way he could've possibly survived that… unless he didn't. The Puppet had brought him back once, the thing must've done so a second time.

"Holy crap..." Vincent muttered to himself. "I died…"

"Not permanently."

Vincent looked up to see Mike entering the room. "You wanted answers Vince. I'll give them to you. I shouldn't have lied in the first place."

"Right, so first you're going to tell me about the metal skeleton thing, right?"

"I'm going to tell you everything." Mike said. "When the spring locks broke and killed you, your bones were badly damaged. By the time we managed to recover your body, there was nothing left of them but splinters. The Puppet informed me that it would be completely impossible for him to recreate the bone cells properly. In order to make it possible for you to move at all, Fritz made a metal skeleton. Exactly like a normal one, simply mineral in origin. Don't worry about the fact that your immune system would ordinarily be lacking without the proper cellular structure. You're completely immune to any and every kind of disease."

"So I'm some sort of superhuman robot?" Vincent asked

"Far from it. Your increased speed and strength come from your strength of will. You're technically a ghost possessing a living body. The fact that your heart is beating is the only reason you aren't technically a zombie." Mike paused. "As for bringing you back… I wasn't entirely honest. Remember when you got shot?"

"Yeah, why?" Vincent said confused.

"You didn't survive. One bullet went through your heart, instead of merely grazing it. In addition, you had extensive lead poisoning. Nothing could have possibly saved you from dying. A similar thing occurred this time. You not only bled out, but you completely ruined a large amount of your skin. I believe I've told you this before, but skin is the second hardest thing for the Puppet to heal, right next to bone." Mike said.

"So then… how long have I been dead?" Vincent asked.

"A week." Mike answered.

"I've been dead a week…" Vincent mused. "So if, say, I were to shoot myself in the head, how long would it take to heal me?"

"The brain is incredibly complex Vincent. It would take several days just to fix your brain, then several more to replace your skull." Mike replied. "Oh, and we would probably remove just about everything from your room."

"Fine, I get your point. Suicide isn't the answer, even to curiosity." Vincent said. "So… What's happened in my week of being dead?"

"Well, we've got Pirate's Cove up and running, Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie are now the main attraction, and Goldie has been covering for your absence." Mike paused. "You're taking this surprisingly well."

"I've been through a lot of weird stuff. Floating dolls, ghosts getting beat up, getting killed by my previous murder victims. This seems about par for the course, all things considered." Vincent paused. "Although the part where I didn't kill that kid was kinda odd."

Mike sighed. Even after being resurrected, some things never change…

* * *

"So, how have things been running?" Vincent asked, walking with Mike into the main stage area.

"If you're implying that we fell apart while you were dead, you're incorrect. Frankly, the only problems that arose from that was that some of the children were upset that Spring was 'sick' again." Mike said. "The three onstage are amazingly popular, and Foxy's the single most popular animatronic."

They entered the main stage area to see Freddy, Foxy, Bonnie, and Chica playing a board game.

"I always wanted to ask you about the changes to the rules." Vincent told Mike.

"How so?" Mike asked

"Well, you've removed four of the rules." Vincent said. He started to count on his fingers. "Don't scream, don't touch Freddy, leave before dark, and don't poop on the floor."

"Well, most of those were entirely insane. I honestly have no idea why they had 'don't poop on the floor'." Mike answered.

"I was wondering why you removed the 'don't touch Freddy' rule." Freddy said from his position at the table. It seemed he was winning the game that the four were playing.

"Well, now that people have permission to touch you, you can finally receive hugs from the kids." Mike said.

Freddy gave it a moment's thought. "Never mind. Carry on."

"What exactly is your question Vincent?" Mike asked wearily.

"Well, I always thought that 'don't scream' was a pretty important rule." Vincent said.

"Says the man who put it in…" Bonnie muttered.

"Hey, there was a very good reason for that rule." Vincent said. "I… just don't remember why."

Mike sighed. "We've replaced them with more important rules. Don't injure the animatronics. Don't stay after closing time. No weapons."

"Aww. I love my knives." Vincent complained.

Mike shot him a glare. "The rules are for the customers Vince."

Vincent grinned evilly. "Sweet."

Mike sat down at the table. "What game are you guys playing?"

"Monopoly." Freddy answered.

"Ah, hope you don't mind if I watch then."

"Not at all Mister Schmidt, Not at all."

* * *

 **Surprise! Vincent did actually die back when he got shot. The whole "coming back to life" thing is mostly going to be used for comedic effect, I just needed to establish that it was possible.**


	40. Animatronics and Adventure

Vincent dashed into the room, swords in hand. There was a cluster of goblins in the corner, and a massive troll sitting in the center of the room.

"Bonnie, you better back me up here!" The man called out.

"Stop running into deathtraps you moron!" The wizard replied. This wasn't the first time Vincent had run into a room full of hostile creatures, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

"Now really isn't the time to be fighting." Freddy said, entering the room and slamming his hammer into one of the goblins. "Not with each other, at any rate."

Vincent completely ignored the goblins, making a beeline for the main target, the troll. The thing was extremely ugly, with beady eyes and green skin. It carried a club in its hand, but that wasn't the part that was worrying. Vincent launched himself at the monstrous creature, swinging both his swords.

 _Thunk._

Both of Vincent's swords got stuck in the troll.

"Goddammit!" Vincent swore.

Freddy gave Vincent a glare. "Watch your tongue."

Foxy was the next to enter the room, blitzing past the goblins like Vincent had. Both of them had known who the priority target was, but unlike Vincent, the rogue's sword actually sliced through the troll, rather than getting stuck. "And that's how ya do it."

"Oh shut up." Vincent muttered, trying and failing to pull his swords out of the creature.

The troll swung its club, launching Vincent into the wall. The purple-clad ranger just lay there for a little bit. "Ow…"

"I got it, don't worry Vince!" Chica said, entering the room. She raised her staff into the air and cast a healing spell on Vincent.

Vincent grunted as the spell popped his bones back into position. "Damn Chica, you always get a crit…"

Chica blushed. "Well, I'm just lucky."

"Yeah, and I keep getting ones." Vincent replied. He rushed back to the troll and pulled his swords out of it. The cuts left behind already regenerating.

"All right, make way for the wizard." Bonnie said as he entered the room, a spell already on his fingertips. With a snap, the wizard launched a fireball blazing at the troll. In seconds, the vile creature was nothing more than a pile of ash on the floor.

"Why is it that the robots get crits all the time?" Vincent asked Percy.

"Vincent, you're breaking immersion…" Percy complained.

"I need to know. Are the dice weighted? Are they able to consistently roll the same number over and over?"

Bonnie, the one sitting closest to Vincent, reached over and smacked the man on the back of the head. "We're lucky."

Vincent rubbed the back of his head. The blow hadn't really hurt, but he knew for a fact that it would bruise. "Why do you like using me as your personal punching bag?"

"If you were sitting just within arm's reach of the man who murdered you, wouldn't you take that opportunity to give him a few smacks?"

The pale man considered it for a moment. "Fair enough."

"Anyways…" Percy said "Let's get back to the fight."

Freddy finished mopping up the goblins and turned to look at both Foxy and Vincent. "You two really need to stop rushing in and leaving me to mop up the mess."

Vincent shrugged. "As the primary damage dealer of the party, it's my job to take out priority targets."

"You mean attack the troll that Bonnie can kill with a single spell. You know full well that you can't kill a troll without fire." Freddy paused. "Not to mention, what would've happened if the goblin shaman had conjured a demon?"

At this, both Foxy and Vincent looked at the pile of goblin bodies. Sure enough, there was a goblin wearing mage's trappings. "Well, that coulda' been an issue cap'n…" Foxy muttered.

Freddy sighed. "Yes, it could've. Your job is to take out priority targets, and a troll is not a priority target when there's a mage in the mix."

At this point, Mike entered the room. "What's up guys?"

"Ah, Mikey! Good ta see ya me lad." Foxy said warmly. "We're playin' this game, what'sitcalled…"

Percy rolled his eyes. So much for immersion. "We're playing a table top roleplaying game. Foxy's probably our best role-player."

"Well, my job _is_ to entertain the kids with me stories." Foxy asserted.

"Of course, when it comes to combat, Freddy's a masterful strategist." Percy continued.

"I do my best." Freddy said humbly.

"Chica and Bonnie are far from bad role-players, but they have a little ways to go. As for Vincent…" Percy sighed. "Well…"

"I managed to get Percy to nearly rage quit four times." Vincent said proudly.

Bonnie smacked the man on the back of the head again. "That's not a good thing you idiot."

"Ow." Vincent muttered.

"Is it too late for me to pop in?" Mike asked

"Yeah. Sorry Mike. We'll be done with this adventure soon." Percy answered.

"Okay then, I can wait. Carry on."

"Where was I…?" Percy muttered as he flipped through the pages of the adventure booklet. "Ah-hah! Troll room…"

The party looked at the doorway to the next room. Apparently that was where the dreaded warlord called home.

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Vincent asked, kicking the door open.

"Vincent you idiot!" Bonnie shouted as the trap on the door shot a dart at Vincent's throat.

Vincent ducked. "Wow, my first roll that didn't fail. That's a miracle."

"Only for you. Bozo." Bonnie muttered.

"Bonnie, Vincent's a member of our team! We can't just let him die to a trap!" Chica said, clearly upset.

"He's chaotic neutral! For all we know, he's going to steal the treasure and stab us all in the backs!"

"I would just like to say that yes, I would gladly do that. If I could roll more than a five." Vincent called over his shoulder as they walked into the room.

In the center of the room there was a large, four armed statue. In its hands it held a large gemstone, the likes of which none of the party had ever seen before.

Foxy whistled. "That be the finest treasure a pirate could wish fer…"

"Well, let's get it then." Vincent said, walking up to the statue.

"Wait lad, don't-!" Foxy began

Vincent grabbed the gem out of the statue's hands, causing the dungeon to begin to collapse.

"Ya idiot Vincent! We coulda' just done a trap check!" Foxy snarled.

The whole party began to make a mad dash for the exit of the dungeon, jumping over corpses and traps that Vincent had triggered earlier. As they came out into the sunlight, they turned to see the whole structure simply sinking into the ground.

"Well, at least we got this beauty!" Vincent said, raising the gem into the sunlight.

The other four just glared at him.

"What?"

* * *

 **Just a fun little chapter.**

 **For those who don't know, the characters are playing Dungeons and Dragons, a personal favorite game of mine.**


	41. Break-in

"Eleven thirty and all's well…" Vincent muttered to himself.

It had been two weeks since Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy had activated, and by this point Vincent had a masterful knowledge of their preferred routes.

Bonnie always went to the left door, often stopping in the parts and service room or the supply closet. The rabbit would occasionally stare up into the cameras without the normal red eyes, instead having nothing more than pinpricks of light in empty sockets. Other than sitting in the supply closet, Bonnie was always moving, either away or towards the office.

Chica rarely if ever came near his office. Most of the time she slowly ambled through the pizzeria, generally either to or from the kitchen. For a solid four hours each night, the chicken would make pizza, cake, and other food items for the next day. When she did show up at the office, she tended to sit there for a little while before leaving, and she always visited the right door.

Foxy was the odd one out of the three. He stayed in Pirate's Cove most of the time, occasionally peeking out. Whenever the camera was on, it seemed like the fox couldn't move. Or wouldn't move, simply because Vincent could easily lock him out if the fox decided to rush while he was watching. Foxy usually ran to the left door, but on more than one occasion he had blitzed the right, causing Vincent an immeasurable amount of panic.

Freddy's pattern was different each night. He sometimes visited all of the rooms, then sat in the hallway outside the door until Vincent left his guard down. Other times, he was outside the door all night, only leaving occasionally. The bear's tactics always left Vincent confused and worried, but with enough care and attention, it was possible to keep Freddy from entering the office.

Fredbear, who was the unofficial fifth member of their group, acted almost less predictable than Freddy. The golden bear could, at any time, just teleport into the office and force Vincent to keep his eyes on the cameras. It had caused Vincent to almost leave the door open for Foxy, and on one occasion, the fox reached the door right before six o'clock. The weirdest part was that as soon as the clock struck six, all of the animatronics were back in their positions, regardless of how far away that was.

Vincent checked his watch. Eleven forty-five. Fifteen minutes until the animatronics would try and kill him tonight. Fun.

 _Click…_

That was odd, the animatronics didn't move until twelve, and the other three humans were still asleep. The ghosts could've potentially made the sound, but they tended to be silent, up until they opened their mouths, then the brothers would chatter endlessly.

 _Maybe Freddy's trying a different tactic tonight…_ Vincent mused. _But that doesn't sound like an animatronic moving. In fact, it sounded like…_

 _A lock._

Vincent sat bolt upright. Nobody would be messing with any of the locks at night. Not unless they intended to break in.

Vincent snatched his flashlight from his desk and bolted down the hallway, trying to find the source of the sound. Keeping silent as he had learned to throughout his life, he eventually located the site of the break in. The back door was open.

Vincent stood still and listened, trying to locate the intruder. His hearing didn't fail him. He heard footsteps moving through the building, somewhere near the parts and service room.

Silently running through the building, Vincent located the intruder. The intruder was a fairly short man, with brown hair and a tool belt on his waist. The man in question had fair skin, and looked to be in good physical condition.

"Stop right there, put your hands up, and turn towards me." Vincent said, pulling a pistol from his pocket.

The burglar in question slowly turned around with his hands up, showing his pale green eyes. Said eyes widened in shock when he spotted Vincent. "Holy crap. Tollini? You're still alive?"

"Franklin Johnson. You scumbag." Vincent said, not moving the weapon an inch. "What are you doing here?"

"You know how it is. My job is to tamper with electronics, generally illegally. This time, my employer didn't even want me to change anything. I was just supposed to copy the data from the animatronics and send it back to him." Franklin shrugged. "It'll probably be easier than when you asked me to ruin that facial recognition program back in '87. Plus, I'm getting paid this time." The short man paused. "What're you doing here anyways? I thought you only worked in the old place to shut it down permanently."

"I'm doing my job, and defending my home." Vincent answered. "Now get on your knees. I want to shoot you so bad, but that's illegal."

"Since when has that ever stopped you Vinny?" Franklin grinned. "After all, you killed those kids. Also, did you dye your hair? It used to be black, I swear."

"Don't call me Vinny."

"What, aren't we friends?"

"That ended when you ditched me in that alleyway."

Franklin shrugged again. "It was nothing personal. Where you been all this time?"

"Places. Now get on the floor, I'm not telling you again."

Franklin didn't move an inch, still grinning at Vincent. Then, without warning, the man's face went from a mischievous grin to abject terror.

Vincent turned his head to see the Puppet walking down the hallway. Ordinarily it would levitate, but when in the presence of people who did not know of magic, it could, and did, walk. It was a sight that was normally friendly, comical even.

It was far from comical now.

The Puppet towered over both of the men. It normally lifted its feet off the ground when it floated around, and its head level was usually not that much more than six feet. When the Puppet walked at full height, however, it was close to eight feet tall, a solid foot more than Freddy.

"And who is this…?" The Puppet asked Vincent.

"What the hell?! That creepy thing can TALK?!" Franklin shouted.

The Puppet turned its head to look at Franklin. "Yes, I can talk. And you can break into our residence. Are there any other surprises that we need to share?" This last sentence seemed to be aimed at Vincent.

"This is Franklin Johnson. Computer tech, hacker, and all around douche." Vincent said, his gun still pointed directly at the hacker in question. "He's the one who developed the virus that ruined the facial recognition program of the toy animatronics. Among other things."

Franklin seemed to have overcome his initial terror of the Puppet, and was now warily watching the marionette. "I've done a lot in recent years."

"Like what?"

"Like learning how to do this." Franklin's hand blurred as he pulled something out of his tool belt and threw it on the ground. In an instant, there was a cloud of smoke. Vincent, who was ordinarily lighting fast, was unable to react as a knife flew out of the smoke and buried itself in his leg, crippling him.

Vincent reached down and pulled the knife out of his calf with a grunt. "That's new. Normally this little piece of crap doesn't fight…"

The Puppet began to search for the hacker, but it seemed as though he had used the distraction to leave the building.

Vincent looked up at the Puppet. "You know it's, like, one in the morning, right?"

The Puppet gave him a confused look. "And…?

"Never mind…"

The Puppet examined the wound in Vincent's leg. "Who exactly was he?"

"Someone from the past. Someone I'd rather not remember."

* * *

 **A story chapter, can't be all fun and games.**

 **Yes, Franklin is an OC. I created him to be the one who made it possible for Vincent to mess with the toys. Vincent can tinker with tools, but he's not good with programming.**


	42. Cheating with a Chicken

"Vincent, what do you think you're doing?"

Vincent looked up at the Puppet. "Well, I heard somewhere that if you surround something with a circle of salt, evil entities can't pass over said circle."

The Puppet looked at the nearly complete circle of table salt. Vincent had gone through five shakers already trying to fully enclose the Puppet's box. "That's not going to work."

Vincent grinned evilly. "You never know until you try!"

"No, I mean it's going to-" Vincent completed the circle, then stiffened and fell over, no longer breathing. "… kill you."

The Puppet sighed. Vincent had an insatiable urge to find everything that could kill him. It was fortunate that he hadn't died more before this. The Puppet leaned over the dead man and placed its hands over his heart.

Vincent gasped and opened his eyes. "You're fortunate that it is easy to restart a heart. Even humans can do it, with the correct apparatus." The Puppet informed him.

Vincent rubbed his head, then looked at the circle of salt. It was complete, but the Puppet was leaning over it like it was nothing more than a line on the ground, which it effectively was. "Aww come on…" He muttered to himself.

"I really can't imagine what you expected." The Puppet looked at the salt on the ground and sighed again. It got out of its box and floated down the hallway to the supply closet. "You can go, I'll clean up your little mess."

Vincent got up off the floor and began to walk out of the room, only to bump into something. "Ah Vincent, I was hoping I would find you here."

Vincent looked at his employer. Mike hadn't really been demanding of him, simply requiring Vincent to behave during the day and to not miss the night shift. "What do you want?"

"Well Vincent, as you know, the primary reason you've been resurrected is so that you can find forgiveness with all of the animatronics." Mike paused. "You've managed to get exactly one to like you in any measure."

"Which one? Freddy? Chica? I know it's not Bonnie, that guy hates me."

Mike paused again. "Goldie, and the primary reason he forgives you is because he's actually a good deal better off as a spirit. Of course, the event with the armed robbers helped your case, but that's not important. What is important is that you have interacted with the other animatronics on a one-on-one basis zero times."

"So what?" Vincent said, not getting the point.

"So, if you ever want to be free of your obligations, you're going to have to individually bond with the animatronics." Mike answered.

"Oh, that makes sense. I'll start with Fredbear." Vincent said, about to walk off.

Mike stopped Vincent. "I literally just told you, Fredbear is the only one who currently forgives you. Befriend one of the other four."

Vincent looked at Mike like he was crazy. "You know they hate me, right? Freddy is cold, Foxy doesn't want to talk to me, and Bonnie is openly hostile. Chica's the only one who's friendly, and I know she's scared of me. She flinches when I go near her."

"Which is exactly why you need to try and befriend them. They won't stop hating you until you prove that you've changed."

Vincent was beginning to get angry. "Who's to say I have changed?"

Mike shook his head. "You saved the pizzeria from no less than three separate sets of robbers. You could have killed any of them, but you didn't. You helped a little girl, when in the past you would've slit her throat. I can tell you've changed, for the better."

Vincent took a steadying breath. "Fine then. I'll go try and befriend these murderous robots." He shoved his way past Mike, a scowl on his face.

* * *

Less than thirty minutes later, he was regretting trying to talk to Bonnie first. He was beginning to lose hope when the Puppet levitated past him.

"Hey Puppet! I need a hand, maybe two." He said, looking down at the ground.

The Puppet paused and looked at him. "What happened…?"

"You know how Bonnie threatened to tear me apart? He followed through." Vincent said, still looking at the ground. "So, uh, I'm short a couple arms."

The Puppet gave him a funny look. "Doesn't that hurt?"

Vincent shook his head. "Not really, although my nose itches, and lacking hands makes it worse."

The Puppet picked up both of Vincent's arms off the floor. "How are you still conscious?"

Vincent opened his mouth to speak, then fell flat on his face.

The Puppet sighed. Vincent had found yet another way to grievously injure himself. Fortunately, it was a simple matter to reconnect his arms and return the blood back to his body. Waking him up took a simple smack.

"Ugh, couldn't you wake me up gentler?" Vincent asked, rubbing his face. He'd been working here for three weeks now, and magic still astounded him.

"No. You have a mission to attend to." The Puppet paused. "Sometimes, fear is easier to dispel than anger." It said, before speeding off, back to whatever it was going to do.

Vincent pushed himself off the floor. "I get a better look at the floor every day…" He mused, thinking about what the Puppet told him. "Fear huh…" he snapped his fingers. "I'm an idiot."

He walked to the kitchen, at this time of day, if his assumption is correct…

It was. A lighthearted humming was audible from within the kitchen, along with the sounds of someone using a variety of implements. Vincent pushed open the door to see Chica humming to herself and making pizza. She was astonishingly efficient, never once was she idle. She was always either putting something in the oven, taking something out of the oven, or preparing something to be cooked. She was about to start on a new pizza when she spotted Vincent standing in the doorway.

Vincent could clearly see the way she jumped, but she hid it fairly well. "Oh hi Vince! Can I help you?"

"I just wanted to watch you at work. I don't get to see it often." He replied.

"Oh, um, okay then!" She said cheerfully. She still didn't seem comfortable around him, but at least she was friendly…

He watched as she took a lump of pizza dough and flattened it out using the rolling pin. She then took the partially flattened wheel of dough and began to spin it in the air, expertly catching it each time before launching it back up to spin again. After a few repetitions, she put the dough back on the counter and began to spread pizza sauce over it, an even distribution. She then took a pinch of cheese from a bowl that she had prepared earlier, and began to spread it over the pizza. When she was finished, she put the pizza into the oven.

"Could I try?" Vincent asked. Chica jumped, it seemed as though she had forgotten he was there.

"Sure!" She said, stepping away from the counter.

He walked up to the counter and tried to remember what to do. _Let's see… so first we take the dough… then the rolling pin…_ He mentally went through the process for making a cheese pizza. It seemed the easiest, so it couldn't be too hard, right?

He flattened the dough with the rolling pin and picked it up to start spinning it. He tossed the dough into the air…

 _Splat._

"Huh." Vincent said, looking up at the ceiling. "I wouldn't think dough would be that sticky."

"It's okay, try again." Chica said encouragingly. "Maybe put some flour on it this time. I don't usually need it, but it does help."

Three globs of dough stuck to the ceiling later, and none of them had come down. "Maybe you should just let me do the dough" Chica said, laughing nervously.

Vincent stepped back to let the chicken do her work. Somehow, she managed to get the dough into the air without tearing it or sticking it to the ceiling. When she finished, she stepped back so Vincent could continue.

"Just… try to do an even distribution of sauce and cheese…" Chica told him

"Got it." Vincent said, doing his very best. As he finished, he picked up the pizza and put it into the oven. "So, uh, what now?"

"Well… we kinda ran out of pizza dough." Chica said nervously. "So, um, we'll wait for it to finish cooking."

When Vincent's pizza eventually got out of the oven, it was little more than a blackened mess. "I can't say I'm surprised." Vincent said. 'I, uh, can't cook."

"Well… uh." Chica said, growing anxious. "I guess I'll wait until tomorrow. That's when we get the next shipment."

Chica seemed to be handling this better than last time they ran out of dough. Looked like interacting with the children really helped her nerves. Vincent thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "Chica, you ever heard of the game Tetris?"

"Yes. Most of the kids say they're not very good at it. Why?" Chica asked confused.

"Well, we have a Tetris machine in our arcade." Vincent walked out of the kitchen. "C'mon."

"We can't exactly play an arcade game without tokens Vince…" Chica said, still confused.

"True, true." Vincent walked up to the token machine. "However, it just so happens…" He pressed a button combination on the machine, then slammed his elbow into it. Several dozen tokens started to pour out of the slot. "That I know a couple tricks." _Wow, that still works. Some things just don't change, do they…_

Chica put her hands over her beak and looked at Vincent with joy in her eyes. "Thank you so much!" She said, picking him up and hugging him.

"Woah, all I did was cheat the machine. I'll show you how, if you want." He said, not having too much trouble breathing thanks to his metal ribs. But if he didn't have said ribs, he was certain something would've cracked.

"I've been looking for something to do other than cook for forever." She put him down. "I just haven't been able to."

"Well, just let me know if you need more tokens." Vincent said, beginning to walk away.

"Vincent..." she said, looking down at her feet. "I'm sorry."

Vincent paused. "What for?"

"For being scared of you. For not giving you the opportunity to prove yourself." She looked up at him. "Can we be friends?"

Vincent smiled. "Yes. Friends"

* * *

 **Vincent is turning over a new leaf.**

 **Credit to Rikku - 056 for the idea of giving Chica an arcade machine. Also, Vincent just seems like that guy who knows how to cheat the token machine.**


	43. Pretend with a Pirate

"Knock, knock."

"Screw off Vincent."

"So I wanted to ask you, why do you like this supply closet so much?"

"It reminds me of the one back in the '83 location."

"And why did you like that one."

"Nobody else went in there."

"Ahh, so it was your alone time room."

Bonnie's ears twitched in irritation. "Yes."

"Aren't you glad it's just you and me in here?"

"Next thing I'll rip off is your head."

"Point taken." Vincent said, leaving the closet. That could have gone better.

The man sighed. He had managed to befriend Chica, but Bonnie was going to be much harder to gain the trust of. Freddy still intimidated him, but Foxy…

Vincent walked towards the main show area. Foxy wasn't too bad. The pirate was protective of his friends, but otherwise didn't seem too upset with their murderer.

Walking up to Pirate's Cove, Vincent could hear the fox muttering to himself and pacing. "Lessee… maybe the little ones would like to hear of the battle with the kraken!" The pacing stopped. "…no, that's not gonna work…"

Vincent pushed the curtain open to see Foxy using both hands to fiddle with his hook, his tail sweeping the area behind him. As the man peeked in, Foxy looked up at him, a quizzical look on his face. "Ahoy Vincent. What be bringin' you here?"

"Just wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help." Vincent shrugged. "I haven't exactly been very friendly."

"Well, er…" Foxy said. "I could use a little bit o' assistance thinkin' up a story ta tell tha kids."

"Hmm… maybe if we act it out, you can determine the best possible story." The man suggested.

Foxy looked at Vincent with a glimmer of hope in his eye. "Ye'd do that fer me?"

"Sure. I mean, we're supposed to be working together, I figure that the best way to do that is to get to know each other." Vincent shrugged. "So let's get started."

* * *

 _"Look out captain!" Vincent shouted, taking aim with his flintlock pistol. Bang! He fired at the gunner on the other ship. He grinned as his target cried out and collapsed._

 _"Don't get too cocky!" Foxy shouted back over the sound of cannon fire. "yer a good shot lad, but ye still die ta enemy fire!" The fox drew his own pistol and fired a few shots at the enemy ship._

 _"Haven't yet." The man replied, reloading his flintlock. He was Vincent the deadeye, the most skilled shooter on the seven seas. He was one of the most feared and sought after mercenaries in the world._

 _"Fire the cannons!" Foxy shouted. The whole ship rocked as the heavy cannons fired at the bounty hunter ship opposite. This was far from the first time bounty hunters had tried to take him out, and it wouldn't be the last, but Captain Foxy always had a trick up his sleeve. "Get in there Vincent!"_

 _Vincent saluted his friend and ran across the deck, jumping across the gap between the two ships. He landed in a roll and jumped upright, drawing his trusty long knife and shooting down the nearest bounty hunter. He threw down his pistol and drew his cutlass from his back. He quickly cut down a man who was about to fire a flintlock at him, then lunged towards the staircase to go below the deck._

 _He stopped for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the sudden darkness, then crept down the staircase to see what exactly these bounty hunters had down there. What he saw was shocking. Hundreds of kegs of gunpowder, enough ammunitions to bombard a city, and more dynamite than you would need to obliterate an island. Vincent grinned evilly. "Well this should be fun."_

 _He did a little bit of impromptu fuse work, then ran back on deck. He waved to Foxy as the captain was cutting down a bounty hunter that had jumped across. "What're ye doin' Vincent? Get back over here!"_

 _"Not yet captain! Gotta make sure the leader doesn't get away!" Vincent called back, making his way to the captain's cabin._

 _"Vincent ya fool!" Foxy shouted, turning his attention back to the skirmish._

 _Vincent entered the captain's cabin to see the captain of the ship, a massive man with a cutlass in either hand. "So here ye are. How much did Foxy pay ya? I'll pay ya double ta work fer me."_

 _"I don't charge friends." Vincent answered, pointing his own cutlass at the man. "Now then, your unconditional surrender is much appreciated."_

 _"Is it really? Who said anythin' about surrender?" The man gave him a gap-toothed grin and then slashed at Vincent with both cutlasses._

 _Vincent ducked under the swing, then the man's leg came up, knocking Vincent to the ground._

 _"Never thought I'd be guttin' the infamous Vincent." The man said. He raised up his cutlasses…_

"Hey Vince, Foxy."

Vincent turned to look at Mike. "Oh, hey Mike."

"What're you two doing?" Mike asked.

"We be pirates, Michael." Foxy said.

"That sounds like a game a bunch of kids would play" Mike said with a grin. "Can I join?"

 _…to be blocked by a pike._

 _"What?" The captain said._

 _"Pleasure to meet you. Ever heard of Michael the strong? Vincent's partner in arms?" Mike paused. "Probably not, I'm the less popular member of the duo."_

 _"And you're a great help in fights." Vincent said, sweeping the captain's legs out from under him._

 _"I must say I prefer land combat. Still, a friend in need." Mike said, pointing his pike at the captain. "What are we going to do with him?"_

 _"Leave him. The ship'll blow up soon enough." Vincent jumped up to his feet. "We'd better get out before that happens."_

 _Meanwhile, on Foxy's ship, Foxy's crew had disabled all of the bounty hunters and locked them in the brig. "C'mon ye two… get outta there…"_

 ** _Boom!_**

 _The bounty hunter ship exploded. "No!"_

 _Foxy slammed his fist down on the railing. "Ye fools, why'd ya stay?"_

 _"Captain! There's a lifeboat over there!"_

 _Foxy looked up at the wreckage. True to what the crewmember said, there was a lifeboat among the flotsam, with two familiar figures sitting in it._

 _Foxy grinned. "Ye lucky devils…"_

* * *

 **Credit to Tomorrow's Hero, and their story After Hours for the idea of having the characters participate in Foxy's adventures. If you haven't yet read it, go do so.**


	44. Bonding with Bonnie

Birthday parties at Freddy's were always a special occasion. A party needed to be scheduled in advance, so as to make it unique to each child, but it was so often worth it. The child in question got a special present from the Puppet, usually something from the parents of the birthday child. If there was no such present, the child got a plushy of their favorite animatronic. The part about it that was so unique was that the child could choose one or more of their favorite animatronics to come and celebrate their birthday with them. It was a tradition that stemmed from the first location, where the specified animatronic would come offstage and sing happy birthday.

It was after a particularly lively birthday party that Vincent was cleaning up in the main party room. The kids seemed to have no idea that the cake belonged on the plates and not on the tables. As Vincent was wiping off one of the tables, a deep voice spoke from behind him.

"Mister Tollini."

Vincent turned around to see Freddy himself. "What's with the 'mister'? I thought you only did that for Mike."

Freddy smiled warmly. "I refer to those I respect as 'mister'. Percy and Fritz prefer me not to. If you would like, I will simply call you Vincent."

"Wait, so does that mean I have your respect?" Vincent said confused.

The bear nodded in confirmation. "You are making the genuine effort to befriend the others and atone for what you have done." Freddy paused. "As you already know, I am the leader of the band. Do you know what a leader does?"

"Umm… to tell his minions what to do?"

Freddy chuckled. "Not quite. A leader's job is to care for his team, to do what is best for them. Seeing as how you have gained the trust of half of my team, I fail to see how I should be any different."

"Wait, so you mean…?"

"You have my endorsement Mister Tollini. I trust you."

Vincent grinned. "Please, call me Vincent."

* * *

"Alright you purple freak. Freddy says that I have to try and be friendly."

"Thanks Bonnie." Vincent smiled. "I was wondering if you could maybe teach me how to play guitar."

Bonnie scoffed. "You, learning how to play guitar?"

Vincent shrugged. "You never know. I could be secretly good at it."

"Okay then, let's see how good you are." Bonnie said, handing Vincent his guitar.

Vincent had actually never held an actual instrument before in his life. In theory, he knew how to play guitar. You strummed the strings and music came out. He tried copying the strumming motion that he had seen before, only for a discordant combination of notes to come out. "Hang on…" He tried it again, this time strumming it the other way. Another ear-rending noise rung out from the guitar.

"You've never done this before, have you?" Bonnie said, not bothering to hide his amusement.

"Not in so many words." Vincent paused. "Is it that obvious?"

Bonnie snickered. "You're not even holding it correctly, you seem to be relying purely on your right hand, when you're so obviously left-handed, and there's a reason you're supposed to hold the neck of the guitar with your other hand."

"Alright then, teach me how to do it properly."

Ten minutes later, and Bonnie had proclaimed that he was a musical failure. "You have the dexterity required, but you're the worst guitar player I've ever heard."

"Am I that bad?" Vincent said with a sheepish grin.

"On birthday parties I sometimes let the kids try the guitar. They're all better at it than you are, even with me helping." Bonnie looked up at the clock. "I gotta go clean the dishes from today."

"Isn't that usually Chica's job?" Vincent asked, putting the guitar back on its stand.

"Yeah, but today she's helping the Puppet clean up the Prize Corner," Bonnie started walking into the kitchen.

"Let me help. More hands makes the job go faster."

Bonnie snorted. "Go right ahead, but don't expect me to be thankful."

As they entered the kitchen, Vincent looked around. There was a large stack of dishes, all of them clearly needing to be cleaned. Vincent took the topmost plate and began to scrub it clean. Things proceeded fairly boring for the next five minutes. Then something unexpected happened. A blob of bubbles sailed through the air and hit Vincent in the head, shortly followed by the sound of a certain rabbit snickering.

Vincent shrugged. "You asked for it. I hope for your sake you're waterproof." He whirled and launched a handful of bubbles at the lavender rabbit.

Bonnie retaliated by flinging a glob of pizza dough at him. "Eat dough!"

The man ducked under the dough and grabbed the bucket of pizza sauce. Chica may have made all of her materials from scratch, but she did make some in advance. Vincent grinned and threw the sauce all over the rabbit. "I think red is a better color for you."

"Ugh!" Bonnie cried out. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to wash that out?" Bonnie reached behind him and grabbed a handful of flour, throwing it all over Vincent. "You know, you aren't quite pale enough."

"I am pale and fabulous, excuse you." Vincent retorted, a grin on his face. He grabbed some of the cheese left over from the day and threw it at Bonnie.

Bonnie laughed out loud, then countered with another glob of dough. Before long, the room looked like a localized tornado had blown through, food on the walls, ceiling, and floor. Both Bonnie and Vincent were covered in pizza dough, flour, and tomato sauce. They were laughing so hard that it was a miracle that Vincent wasn't collapsed on the floor trying to breathe.

"OH MY GOD!"

Both Bonnie and Vincent looked at the figure in the doorway. It was Chica, and she did not look happy. "What did you two do?!"

The two males looked at each other, then pointed fingers and simultaneously said "He did it!" before bursting into laughter again.

"Both of you, OUT!" Chica said, pointing. "You're both banned from the kitchen."

"Aww c'mon Cheeks, it was just a bit of fun." Bonnie said, laughter still in his voice.

"It's a mess! You ruined my kitchen!" Chica said. "I have to clean this up now. Shoo! Shoo! Get out of my kitchen!"

"We'd better get out." Bonnie said, bodily picking up Vincent and carrying the laughing man out of the kitchen.

"She seemed" Vincent gasped for air. "Very mad."

"She'll calm down eventually. She's always been a bit territorial over the kitchen, and it's not like this is the first time I've ruined it." Bonnie said with a grin, then he sobered, becoming serious. "I'm sorry I never gave you a chance before. I thought you were the same man who killed us before. So, uh, friends?" The rabbit stuck his paw out.

Vincent shook his paw. "Friends."

* * *

 **I know some people were expecting Freddy to be the hardest for Vincent to please, and while I entertained the idea for a while, I realized that my version of Freddy is friendly and caring.**


	45. A Birthday Party

Vincent was sitting in the parts and service room feeling horrible. He wasn't drunk, he hadn't touched any alcohol. He wasn't sick, that was impossible. He certainly wasn't tired or hurting, because his nerves were dead and he only ever needed to sleep for two or three hours to get a full day's worth of rest. He had even gotten into the Spring suit to try and make the feeling go away, and that only made it worse.

So now he was slumped against the wall wearing the rabbit suit and wracking his brain to think of a possible reason he was feeling so bad. "Did somebody slip like, a ton of alcohol into my drink…?" He clutched his head. It didn't _feel_ like a hangover. It was just… a horrible feeling. One that wouldn't go away. Maybe because of…? But no, that couldn't be.

"Vince?"

Vincent looked up. Mike was calling for him. He sighed and stood up, wondering what Mike could possibly want. He stumbled into the hallway to see Mike walking towards him "Good, you're already in the Spring suit."

"What?" Vincent said confused.

"So, as you know, we normally don't operate on Sundays." Mike started.

"Yeah. Why?"

"The sole exception is for birthday parties." Mike continued. "If someone reserves a birthday party on a Sunday, it's the sole event of the day. The birthday child, in this case girl, requested you specifically."

"Someone wanted me specifically?"

"Well, she asked for Spring the rabbit. In any case, you should recognize her." Mike answered. He looked down at his watch. "We'll be opening in an hour, we'd better get ready."

Vincent set up the birthday decorations without taking off the suit. It made him faster and gave him a little bit of extra reach. He was about to put the banner when he saw the name on it. "Angela…" That name seemed familiar. Vincent shrugged. Probably wasn't important.

As they set up the decorations, Chica went into the kitchen to prepare the birthday cake. That was another thing that was unique about birthdays at Freddy's. The parents could either order a custom cake from the pizzeria, or bring their own. People would swear by the food at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Everything was made from scratch, and it resulted in top quality food.

"Mom! We're here!"

Vincent turned towards the front doors to see the birthday girl herself, along with her mother, entering the building. "Hello there Angela!"

"See Mom! I told you he would remember!" Angela said excitedly.

Now Vincent knew why the name seemed familiar. This was the little girl who had gotten lost. She seemed to find him her favorite. That was… interesting. Most of the kids didn't like Spring as much as, say, Fredbear. Not to mention the fact that he missed a whole week of operation, due to death. "Of course I remembered! It's not every day I meet as nice a little girl as you!" He answered, getting into the Spring persona.

Angela ran up to Vincent and gave him a hug, then gasped in surprise. "You're so soft! Bobby said that you were made of plastic." She grinned. "I told him he was wrong!"

Vincent chuckled. "So, how old are you today Miss Angela?"

"Today I'm ten!" Angela said proudly.

"Ten huh? Does that make you an adult yet?" He joked.

"Not yet."

"Well, ten or not, you want to go see the rest of the pizzeria? I can introduce you to the rest of the band before your friends arrive."

"Yes!"

Vincent picked the girl up and deposited her on his shoulders. "Up we go!" Angela giggled as she was lifted into the air. "Alright, who do you wanna meet first?"

"Can we meet Foxy first?" Angela asked, excited.

"Of course!" Vincent walked towards Pirate's Cove, taking long steps to get there quickly. "Captain Foxy! We have a visitor for you!"

* * *

While Angela was playing with Foxy, Vincent was watching for the girl's friends. It seemed like it would be a while before anyone arrived. He was somewhat surprised when the girl's mother came over to him "So, um… you're just an actor in a suit, right?"

"Yes ma'am." Vincent answered. He reached up and undid the hidden latches on the suit's neck, then removed the head. It was always disorienting to change between seeing through the eyes of the suit and seeing normally. As he removed the suit's head, he heard the woman gasp. "Is something wrong?"

Angela's mother shook her head. "Sorry, you just seem familiar…"

Vincent raised an eyebrow. "Really? I mean, there really aren't many people with my features."

"You remind me of… someone I knew." The woman shook her head again. "Oh look, one of Angela's friends is arriving."

Vincent quickly latched the head back on and went to go and see how Angela was faring with Foxy. He arrived in time to hear Foxy finishing off one of his stories. "… and that be how I defeated the mighty kraken!"

"Wow!" He heard the sound of someone clapping. "Can you tell me another story?"

Vincent pushed open the curtain to Pirate's Cove. Angela was sitting on the ground and watching Foxy, a look of complete fascination on her face. "Hey Angela, your friends are arriving."

"Sorry Foxy! I need to go make sure my friends don't get lost!" Angela jumped up and ran into the main party area.

Foxy chuckled. "She's a handful."

"She's sweet." Vincent answered. "See you later Foxy."

"See you later lad."

Vincent exited Pirate's Cove and went back into the main party area. Angela's friends were starting to trickle in now, and the party would officially begin in ten minutes. He grinned when he saw the birthday girl pestering her friends, telling them all about Captain Foxy and Spring.

"Foxy is awesome! He told me a story about how he defeated the kraken! Spring is still my favorite though, he's funny."

"But they're just _robots!_ " One of the boys at the party said.

"They're not just robots, they're amazing."

Vincent walked over to the group at this point. "I'm going to have to agree with Angela on this one, I'd say that we are pretty amazing."

The boy looked up at Vincent with his eyes wide and his mouth open. "Don't keep your mouth open too long, a fly might decide to make it home." Vincent said jokingly.

"I'm sorry mister Spring!" The boy cried out.

"Woah, it's all cool little guy. A lot of people think we're just robots." Vincent paused. "In any case, I think it's time for some games."

Before long, all of the kids had dispersed into the arcade and they were playing the arcade cabinets. Vincent wasn't exactly surprised when he saw that Chica had the top score on almost all of the games, but the children enjoyed themselves. Naturally, Vincent was accompanying the birthday girl throughout her birthday. She asked him once to play a video game with her, and he was glad to oblige.

After about thirty minutes of arcade games, the children went into the Prize Corner to turn in their tickets. As they entered the Prize Corner, Vincent caught sight of the Puppet descending into its box.

"Alright miss birthday girl, time for your presents!" Vincent said.

Right on cue, "Pop Goes the Weasel" began to play, and the Puppet rose out of its box, a present in its hands. It leaned over the side of the box and presented the gift to Angela. "Thank you Mari!"

"Mari?" Vincent asked.

"Short for Marionette!" Angela answered. All of the kids started to trickle out of the Prize Corner, leaving only the Puppet and Vincent.

"Mari? Really?"

The Puppet shrugged, or at least did the closest thing it could to shrugging. "I don't particularly care."

"Well, if it's fine with you." Vincent said, leaving the Prize Corner. Chica was just now bringing out the birthday cake.

"Wait! Don't cut the cake yet!" Angela cried out. She ran up to Vincent. "Spring, can you play me a song?"

This made Vincent a little bit nervous. He had "played" guitar onstage a couple times, but it had been him acting like he was playing guitar while the speakers made all the actual sound. "I can try."

He walked up onto the main stage and grabbed the guitar that was associated with the Spring character. While Bonnie had a red electric guitar, Spring Bonnie had been associated with an acoustic guitar since Fredbear's Family Diner. _Here goes nothing…_ He began to strum a slow tune. To the surprise of all of the pizzeria's permanent inhabitants, it sounded pleasant and calming, while still being upbeat. To his own surprise, he began to sing along to the tune. " _Happy birthday to you… Happy birthday to you… Happy birthday, little Angela… Happy birthday to you._ "

The kids began to clap, and Angela was the loudest applauder. Vincent nodded and put the guitar back, then stepped off the stage. The partygoers began to throng around the table where the birthday cake was, all clamoring for their piece of the cake.

"I didn't know you could sing." Mike muttered to Vincent.

"I didn't either." Vincent replied. "Come to that, I can't play guitar. Bonnie gave up on me."

"Well that's…. interesting." Mike mused, then went to go resolve a fight between two of the kids.

"Spring! Spring!" Angela said, running up to Vincent. "Have some of the cake!" She raised up a paper plate with a piece of cake and a plastic fork on it.

"Thank you!" Vincent said, taking the plate. Without hesitation, he took a bite of the cake, not bothering to ponder if it was actually possible for him to eat it. The vanilla cake was amazing. It was far better than any other cake he had ever eaten.

Angela had already run off to rejoin her friends. They returned to enjoying their cake, then went off to go play more arcade games. After another half-hour of games, people started to leave. The last ones to leave were Angela and her mother, Angela giving Vincent a "Goodbye!" as she left.

Mike walked up to Vincent and stood next to him. "Hey Vincent, do you have any family?"

Vincent looked at Mike confused. "I had a little brother for… most of my life. Why?" he seemed a little sad when he was talking about his brother.

"Because Angela's last name is Tollini."

* * *

 **Angela's a sweet little girl, isn't she?**

 **I know some people are wondering where the toys are. Don't worry, they'll make an appearance soon.**


	46. New and Shiny

_"I hate you, you traitor!"_

 _"You only care about yourself! I'm not going to stay here with you and your 'family', when there are others who need help more!"_

 _"I'll kill you, I'll kill you!"_

* * *

Vincent woke with a start. Yesterday had stirred up some unwanted memories. Not to mention, the whole time a small part of him had wanted to gather up the kids and… but he was past that. That wasn't going to happen again. Ever.

He rubbed his eyes and sat up. It had been years since the last time he had anything that even remotely resembled a nightmare. Well, excepting his years as Springtrap. That was a nightmare in and of itself. Sitting up, Vincent reached over to his bedside table and grabbed his phone. _No new messages. Probably should've expected that._

Vincent stood up and walked out of his room. Mike's door was cracked open for some reason. Usually Mike would close his door all the way. Vincent took a peek inside as he passed. What caught his eye was a second bed in Mike's room. It was vacant. Weird, last time he was here, there was something on it. Now that he thought about it, the occupant had been something… white. Not like the skin tone, but like snow.

He shook his head. Back to the matter at hand. Today was Monday, and that meant that they would be busy today. Vincent walked upstairs and made his way to the parts and service room.

"Hey Vince!" Bonnie called over.

"Yeah Bon?" Vincent said.

Bonnie walked over to him and punched him in the shoulder. "You lied to me. You said you couldn't play guitar!"

"I can't. I don't know how I was able to yesterday, but I can't. I also can't sing either, I've heard people call it a garbled screech." Vincent said, rubbing his shoulder. That was going to bruise.

"Uh-huh." Bonnie said, not quite believing.

"I gotta get my suit on. See you later Bonnie." Vincent said, entering the parts and service room.

* * *

Throughout the week, Vincent had seen other oddities. Doors that were supposed to be closed had been left open. Some of the spare pizza was missing from kitchen storage, and leftover cake was considerably smaller than when it had been put into the kitchen. Vincent had also spotted flashes of white on the edge of his vision, but when he turned to look it was gone.

Vincent had ruled out the shadow brothers. Regardless of their immense magical capability when they wanted to work together, they had no use for food, they floated through doors, and they had never showed up as anything other than light-absorbing silhouettes. True, they had swapped appearances for a day, simply to screw with Vincent, but they seemed to lack the ability to change color. It could have simply be hallucinations, but that wouldn't explain the missing food and open doors; and in any case, the only one who had displayed the ability to give someone hallucinations was Fredbear, and he was far from frivolous with his abilities.

There was theoretically the possibility that someone had gotten in and was living off of the food, but if that were the case, they would be caught on camera at least once during the night. Percy was meticulous about making sure to close doors after going through them, and Fritz only ever went into a select few rooms, with the exception of when he was moving one of the animatronics to give them repairs.

Regardless of Vincent's paranoia, there was an important event that was supposed to happen today. After twenty-three years of sporadic action, the toys were going to be reactivated.

All of the toys looked considerably different from their original designs. None of them were plastic any more, and like the others, all of them had synthetic skin. The makeup had been removed as well, they no longer had rosy cheeks.

Toy Freddy -or Theodore, as Mike called him- no longer looked overweight. Instead he simply seemed extremely fluffy, as if his fur was most of his body composition. He was a lighter brown than Freddy, with similar blue eyes and the same type of top hat and bowtie.

Toy Bonnie, or Ben, was far from as feminine as he was in his original appearance. He no longer had pronounced eyelashes or eyeshadow. He was the same light blue color as before, with a slender body. He had broader shoulders than before, but was otherwise skinny.

Toy Chica, or rather, Tia, had soft, down-like feathers. Her unnecessarily shapely features had been more or less removed. She still had a feminine figure, but it was far less noticeable. The design flaw that had resulted in Tia's beak coming off had been fixed, but that wasn't the only fix. Like Foxy, she was one of the few animatronics to have actual clothing, as opposed to just a bib or a hat. She was clad in a t-shirt and shorts.

BB looked almost exactly like a human child. He was the shortest, only being about four feet tall. He wasn't the same general shape as a bowling ball any more, instead he had the appearance of a slightly overweight little kid. He still had his normal outfit, but now he had ginger hair on his head as well.

Toy Foxy…

"Weren't there five?" Vincent asked.

"Well duh."

Vincent turned around. There was nobody there. "Who said that?"

"You're really inattentive, aren't you? It's frankly kinda funny."

Vincent looked all around the room, searching for the source of the voice. He looked at Mike, who was grinning. "Are you doing this?"

"Nope." Mike said, as Fritz burst into a sniggering fit.

"What're you laughing at?" Vincent was extremely disgruntled. "And who keeps talking to me?"

"I am. That should be obvious." The voice seemed extremely pleased with itself, or rather, herself.

"Who are you?!" Vincent was beginning to get angry,

"I'll give you a little hint. I'm not alive, but neither am I dead."

" _Where_ are you?" Vincent said, still scanning the room.

"Here's a better hint. I'm in the one direction you haven't looked yet." The voice seemed to find Vincent's confusion extremely amusing.

Vincent stopped in his tracks, then looked up. Gripping to the ceiling with sharp claws was a snow white vixen, her tail tucked up against her body. She had pink fur on the tips of her tail and ears, and as she grinned he could clearly see her sharp teeth. "Ta-da! Vix, at your service!" She waved, then as she tried to grab the ceiling again, started to slip.

 _CRASH!_

 _Snap!_

Vix rubbed her head. "That hurt. Oops." She looked down at Vincent, who she had landed on. "You okay pale man?"

Vincent didn't respond. It was kind of hard to when his neck had snapped.

* * *

 **Here are your toys! Vix has changed a considerable amount since the last time we saw her. You'll see why tomorrow.**


	47. Crash

_"Alright Vincent, are you ready for your birthday party?"_

 _"Yes! Yes!" The five year-old exclaimed._

 _"Okay then, let me get little Marcus ready and then we can get going." His mother told him, going to tend to the baby._

 _Even then, Vincent was abnormally skinny. He had inherited that, along with his odd grey eyes, from his mother. He had inherited his jet black hair from his father._

 _His mother was a beautiful woman, Vincent knew it even as a child. She had flowing hair and a stunning figure, along with a sharp tongue and a witty mind. Her eyes seemed to unnerve most people, however, simply because grey was not a color that most people associated with the eyes. Vincent's father, on the other hand, was a broad-shouldered athlete. He had a history of sports, from football to boxing. By most standards, he was considered handsome, with a chiseled jaw and a muscular physique. His dark hair was cut short, and he had the beginnings of a beard, along with his pale blue eyes, his face was extremely memorable._

 _The funny thing was, Vincent never even got to know their names…_

 _"Mom, are we going to Fredbear's?" Vincent asked excitedly._

 _"Of course we are sweetie, that's where you wanted to go, right?"_

 _Vincent nodded in confirmation, then ran into his room to grab his Fredbear plush. The other kids always made fun of Vincent because of his eyes, but Fredbear was his best friend._

 _"Vincent! C'mon sport, we're leaving!" Vincent's father called out._

 _"Coming Dad!" Vincent replied, hugging the purple-hatted plush. He ran out to the car and climbed into the back seat, next to his baby brother._

 _Fredbear's Family Diner was Vincent's favorite place in the whole world. It had opened a few years before he was born, and it sported a mascot. Said mascot was a yellow bear with deep blue eyes and a purple bowtie and hat. Vincent adored Fredbear, the character was not only funny and intelligent, but he wore the color purple, which was Vincent's favorite color._

 _While on the way to the popular diner, the weather began to worsen. Rain began to pour from the sky, and lightning flashed through the air. It was okay though, because nothing could dampen Vincent's mood. Right?_

 _There was the sound of tires skidding on the road._

 ** _Crash!_**

 _When Vincent came to, there was wreckage all around him, and the sound of a small child crying._

 _"Mom?! Dad?!" Vincent cried out, unsteadily climbing to his feet and looking around. He was miraculously unharmed by the crash._

 _The same could not be said for his parents. Both of them had head injuries, and it looked like they were both dead. Vincent had to grow up in a matter of minutes then, his childhood shattered. The only memento of it the golden bear plush he still clutched in his hand._

 _Vincent realized that he had forgotten about the youngest member of his family. He tottered over to the baby, also miraculously uninjured, and picked him up._

 _"Shh Marcus, shh…" Vincent told his little brother. "Big brother will take care of you…"_

 _Sirens began to blare in the background…_

* * *

Vincent woke with a start, his hand immediately flying to the back of his neck. "Almost like a four hundred pound robot _didn't_ fall on my head…" He muttered, getting up off of the table in the parts and service room. "I'm seeing the inside of this room far more than I would like."

Someone knocked on the door to the room, then opened it. Vincent looked up to see Mike entering the parts and service room, a plate of pizza in his hand. "Figured you'd be hungry." The man said, handing the pizza to Vincent.

After taking the plate, Vincent gave Mike a quizzical look. "So, I thought you said we were activating the toys today?"

"Yesterday, actually. We had to get you some new vertebrae." Mike paused. "Vix said sorry, by the way."

"Why was she even up there?" Vincent asked, taking a bit out of the pizza.

"Vix was the first animatronic to undergo upgrades. She volunteered, in fact. But that's not the only reason." Mike paused. "This explanation will probably just raise more questions, but you need to know. The Puppet explained this to me. If a spirit has a residence, they are permanently bound to said residence. Does that make sense?" Vincent nodded in confirmation. "Okay, now for the complicated part. Jeremy is bound to Vix. He does not have possession of the animatronic, but he cannot stray far from her. His effective range of operation while she is deactivated is somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty feet. On the other hand, when Vix is online, he has the ability to roam a distance of around a mile away from her."

Vincent finished of his pizza. "So you're saying that Jeremy Fitzgerald is incapable of leaving the Mangle alone." Vincent shook his head. "How ironic."

Mike scowled. "Don't call her that. She hates it."

"So why exactly does she have a bed in your room?" Vincent continued, ignoring Mike.

"We went a little… overboard. Fritz accidentally made it so that Vix has to actually sleep at least a few hours every day. Reverting the changes could cause a full memory wipe, which, as you can probably guess, would be catastrophic. Vix has spent most of the last few months sleeping in order to build a large battery reserve so that she can operate for a while without needing to sleep again. Hopefully we can find a way to fix the issue before her batteries run out." Mike waved at Vincent to follow him. "Let's go see the others."

"Last time I saw Mangle, she seemed nervous. Well, I say last time I saw her, I mean back in '87. What changed?"

"Don't call her mangle. The thing that changed was actually Jeremy. She used to be shy and insecure, but interacting with Jeremy has done wonders for her temperament. I'm not entirely sure it's all good things, but she's not nearly as shy anymore, and she's developed a healthy dose of self-confidence."

Vincent was silent for a minute, then said what was on his mind. "So, did you actually turn the toys on?"

Mike shook his head. "Not yet. I figured it would be better to wait for you to, uh, wake up before we activated them."

"Wake up. Really Mike?" Vincent said dryly.

Mike shrugged. "It's better than saying resurrect."

"Only barely."

"At least it won't cause unnecessary confusion if we say it in public." Mike stopped. "Ah, here we are."

The walked into the main party area. It was obviously past closing time, as the clock on the wall declared that it was eight o'clock. All of the currently online animatronics were cleaning up the mess from the day.

"Oh, hey Vince." Bonnie called over. "Did you have a nice rest?"

"Well, if sleep doesn't help you, dying will." Vincent replied.

"Sorry about that, by the way." Vix said from her position on the ceiling.

Vincent craned his neck to look at the fox. "Why are you up there, exactly?"

Vix shrugged, a bizarre action considering that all four of her limbs were being used to keep her attached to the ceiling. "I prefer to stick to the ceiling. Something from… those days."

"You mean '87." The grey eyed man said flatly.

"Yes I mean '87. What other time would I have been on the ceiling?"

"What other time were you a mess of parts?"

The vixen dropped to the ground, landing lightly despite her inner workings being mostly metal. "I would prefer if you didn't talk about that."

"What's the matter Mangle? Don't like to remember when you murdered Jeremy?" Vincent said, not caring about the consequences.

"Don't call me that." Vix said, irritated.

"Is your past bringing up problems Mangle?" Vincent asked. "Wouldn't be a problem if you didn't _murder_ someone."

"Don't. Call. Me. That." The vixen snarled. "How would you like it if I called you names? Salvage. Hybrid."

Vincent began to grow angry. "Stop."

"What's the matter you grey-eyed runt? Can't take what you love to dish out?" Vix poked him in the chest.

 _You grey-eyed runt…_

Vincent grabbed a knife from somewhere on his person, rage in his eyes. "I'll kill you!"

* * *

 **Poor Vincent has a lot of pain in his past.**


	48. The Orphanage

_You grey-eyed runt!_

Vincent slashed at Vix, murder in his eyes. The white fox ducked under his knife, then countered with a swipe of her claws. Someone began shouting.

 _You little freak!_

The man grabbed the animatronic's claw with his right hand, then propelled her past him.

 _Pale weirdo!_

He was about to bring his knife down on the back of Vix's head when a strong hand grabbed his left arm, halting him in his tracks. Vincent turned his head to see Mike's green eyes wide with concern. He wasn't scared of Vincent, but worried.

The last person to be worried about Vincent…

"Drop the knife Vince."

His fingers loosened, and the knife dropped to the floor. Tears began to well up in his eyes, but he blinked them back. He was _not_ going to cry. Not now, not ever. He twisted his hand out of the stronger man's grip and ran out of the building. He walked down the sidewalk for a while, then made an impulsive decision to make his way to one place he had told himself he would never return to.

The orphanage.

* * *

 _A week after the car crash, Vincent and Marcus were introduced to their new home._

 _A large orphanage that was criminally understaffed. The two caretakers being a man and his wife, both of whom forced the children that lived in the orphanage to constantly clean and repair the building. There was one group of children that continually bullied the others, and Vincent and his little brother were prime targets._

 _Vincent was always hit with taunts about his bizarre appearance, as well as his obsession with Fredbear. After only a month of living in the orphanage, Vincent had hidden his lone possession, his Fredbear plush, under the floorboards._

 _Marcus, on the other hand, was taunted because he was slow and gentle. He was far from stupid, in fact he was capable of quite intelligent observations, but he was deliberate. He acted only after internally debating all of his choices, which lead the others to think he was dimwitted._

 _For two full years Vincent and his brother suffered through the taunts and pain dealt to them by the other children. Other kids had been adopted out on multiple occasions, but never for Vincent and Marcus. This was because they refused to be separated. Marcus was normal, his eyes the same blue as their father's, and his physique was the same broad-shouldered athlete's body. Vincent was the primary reason they never got adopted. He unsettled everyone. No matter how long he was forced to remain outside, his skin remained the same pale color. Despite only being seven, he was already almost as tall as his caretakers, but he weighed well under a hundred pounds. The biggest deterrent were his eyes. Many people found him to be a precocious child, but after looking into his grey eyes for a few moments, they decided that it would be better if he was on his own. It wasn't just the fact that grey was an abnormal eye color, but many found him to be more mature than the average adult._

 _While residing at the orphanage, he discovered his ADHD. Vincent was incapable of sitting in one place for extended periods of time. In addition, he was easily distracted. That didn't mean he took his attention off of the matter at hand, however. The bullies had made that mistake far too many times._

 _The worst part of his life at the orphanage wasn't the bullying, it wasn't the adults that found him odd, it wasn't even the abusive caretakers. The worst part was the nightmares. From the night of the crash onwards, he had nightmares that drained his will to fight, and sucked all the hope from his life. He became apathetic towards just about everything. The one light in his life was his little brother. Upbeat Marcus, bringer of joy._

 _Funny enough, it was Marcus who brought about the downfall of the orphanage._

 _"Vincent! Help!"_

 _Vincent looked up from the floor he was scrubbing. There was supposed to be an inspector visit today, and the caretakers had forced all of the children to either clean up, or be left on the streets._

 _"Aww, is the wittle boy crying for his ghostly protector?"_

 _Vincent's brow furrowed. That sounded like Brian, the leader of the bullies that continually picked on both of the Tollini brothers. Vincent dropped the brush he was using and stood up, trying to find the source of the disturbance._

 _"Leave me alone! I just want to clean!"_

 _"You will clean, you'll be cleaning our section too."_

 _"Leave my little brother alone."_

 _The bullies looked up from Marcus to look at Vincent. "Aww, we're just making a little deal, ain't that right Marcus?" Brian kicked Marcus in the side._

 _"Leave. Him. Alone." Vincent was beginning to get angry._

 _"What? You want to join him, you pale weirdo?"_

 _Vincent's hands tightened into fists. "Leave my brother alone." He repeated._

 _"Or what? You'll hit me? You wouldn't, you little freak." Brian sneered._

 _A quick jab to the face made Brian cry out, more in anger than in pain. Vincent wasn't strong, far from it, but he was quick._

 _"That's it you grey-eyed runt!" Brian punched Vincent back, knocking the black haired child to the ground. "You asked for it!"_

 _Before long, the other bullies had joined him, raining blows on the trembling boy. It continued for a solid five minutes before a deep voice said "Stop!"_

 _The bullies pulled away from Vincent to show that he was nearly unconscious, and covered in bruises and cuts. The man who had shouted stop stepped forwards. He was holding a clipboard and was scowling. "Where are your caretakers?"_

 _Brian nervously pointed towards the office that both of the caretakers were waiting in._

 _The inspector's eyes narrowed. "Hmm… and why are you attacking this boy?"_

 _"I… Uh… You don't tell me what to do!" Brian said defiantly._

 _Marcus spoke up at this point. "They're attacking my brother because he was protecting me from them."_

 _"Really? Well then…"_

 _Vincent didn't notice what came next because he fell unconscious._

* * *

Vincent turned the corner and gasped in shock. The old building was in horrible disrepair. The doors and windows were all boarded up. What was more surprising was the fact that it was still there. He expected it to have collapsed by now.

If it was still there, then maybe…

He looked around. This part of town was mostly deserted, with only a few homeless people in this area. That was good. He walked up to the front doors, then paused. _There was a back door…_ Vincent walked around the building, searching for the back door that he knew was there. It was, predictably, also boarded up. Not anything a couple minutes' worth of effort couldn't fix, however.

Stepping inside, Vincent let out a low whistle. The inside was in a surprisingly good condition, especially considering the outside's appearance. He walked slowly through the building, trying to remember the room he had been put into when he was a little kid. _Let's see… room fifteen… ten beds… Ah hah._ He entered the room that he had inhabited for two of the most miserable years of his life.

 _Which plank was it…?_ He wondered silently, walking slowly through the room. He had had the good fortune to be placed in a corner bed, but he couldn't remember exactly which floorboard he was looking for.

Vincent snapped his fingers, realizing where the plank he was looking for was. He knelt down to the ground and took out a knife, then dug up the floorboard in question. He reached down and grabbed the bundle of tissue paper that he had placed there oh so many years before, then began to unwrap it. As he looked at the contents, a small smile found its way onto his face.

* * *

 _Vincent looked back up at the orphanage. It had closed down just a month ago. It was standard procedure to try and find parents for the children in an orphanage once it shut down, but Vincent and, by extension, Marcus had been passed over. Funny really, since they had been the reason it shut down. Perhaps it wasn't so odd, seeing as how the previous owners of the orphanage had hated them so much for cutting of their income._

 _After being shown to dozens of prospective adoptive parents, Vincent and Marcus had been forgotten entirely. None of the parents had wanted to take care of them, probably for the same reason that they hadn't been adopted before. Adults found Vincent's eyes to be extremely unnerving, a trait that, now that they were on the streets, was useful from time to time._

 _His only regret was having to leave his only belonging behind._

* * *

Taking his old Fredbear plush out of its wrapping, Vincent still wore his smile. "I've missed you…" He whispered to himself.

"So this is where you called home for at least one year of your life, correct?"

Vincent whirled around, knife in his left hand and plush in his right, only to realize that the voice was a familiar monotone. "Creepy damn doll…" He scowled. "How do you know that?"

The Puppet had a sympathetic look on its face. "When you die, your mind drifts a bit. Occasionally I catch glimpses of your memories."

"So you snooped on my thoughts. Great. I thought you were supposed to be the good guy." Vincent started to replace the wooden floorboard.

"It's not as though I can help it. I got a pretty good picture of what happened to you in your childhood." The Puppet floated over to him and put one of its hands on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything to me." Vincent muttered, putting the nail back in its place. It looked exactly like it had before he had pried it out of the floor.

"Maybe not, but I haven't been too welcoming towards you, even with the fact that I know what horrible things have happened to you."

Vincent waved him off. "I murdered you. I don't deserve your sympathy."

The Puppet looked him dead in the eyes. "Everyone deserves a second chance."

"I've been doing a horrible job of making the most of mine." Vincent muttered, sitting down on his bed. It was the same mattress he had back when he was seven.

The Puppet gave him a quizzical look. "If you're referring to the incident earlier with Vix, then you shouldn't be so worried. Vix has developed a hot temper, and you can hardly be blamed for reacting in the manner that you have."

The man shook his head. "I've lied to all of you."

That made the Puppet stop in its tracks. "What?"

"I'm not your friend. I'm not anybody's friend. I'm an actor, I always have been." Vincent looked at the floor. "I'm not the kind soul who decided to give Chica a way to work out her stress. I'm not the adventurous spirit who played with Foxy. I'm not the polite gentleman who listened to Freddy. I'm not even the goofball who got into a food fight with Bonnie." He looked up at the Puppet. "Hell, I'm not even the hero who stopped the burglars. I'm an actor. I put on a persona so that I can resolve everyone's issues. I gained their trust, but I don't deserve it."

The Puppet looked at him sadly. "But you are the one who helped them. You helped Chica with her stress, you gave Foxy assistance in his stories, you eased Freddy's doubts, and you resolved Bonnie's grudge."

Vincent shook his head. "They trust me, but I don't trust them. I may be their friend, but they sure as hell aren't mine."

"You've come a long way from the man you were sixteen years ago." The Puppet said, floating over to sit down next to Vincent. "You're no longer the man who murdered eleven children and blamed it on the company."

"The man who murdered eleven children was a far cry from the boy who only wanted to protect his little brother."

"Vincent." The man looked at the haunted marionette. "You're already on your way to becoming a better person. Look at you! You're admitting your mistakes and trying to fix them! So what if you don't believe that you deserve their trust? They believe that you do. No matter what, we are in this as a family."

Vincent sighed. "Yes. As a family."

* * *

 **Vincent really isn't good at this sappy stuff. Also, raise your hand if you thought one or more people were going to wind up dead and/or stabbed. I'm watching you.**


	49. New and Shiny, Take 2

Vincent was still shaking off his emotions when they finally got back to the pizzeria. The Puppet had cloaked itself in some sort of invisibility spell, so as not to cause unnecessary panic when people spotted a floating puppet roaming through the streets.

He pushed open the door to be met with a yellow blur that lifted him off the ground. "Vincent! We were so worried!"

"Woah, calm down Chica." Vincent said. "I'm fine. Please put me down."

Chica lowered him to the ground, but didn't release her hug. "Where have you been? Are you hurt?"

"Chica, I'm fine. I just needed some air." He answered, squirming out of her grip. "What's been going on since I left?"

"Oh, Vix decided to pick up your knife by the wrong end." Chica giggled a little bit. "She has politely informed us that pain is not fun."

Vincent raised an eyebrow at this. "Wait, is she the first animatronic to actually receive an injury? Seriously?"

"Apart from Spring, yes." The Puppet informed him, floating back to the main entryway from the main show area. It had drifted past him when Chica had launched her ambush, and was now returning. "Although it's not all that much of a surprise. The others tend to exercise caution. Vix is a bit too hotheaded for her own good."

The man snorted at this. "A bit?"

The Puppet shot him a glare. "You're one to talk."

Vincent shrugged. "Fair enough."

They were interrupted by the sound of a teenage girl swearing loudly. "That would be her." The Puppet said, drifting back into the main show area, Vincent and Chica in tow.

"Could you do this WITHOUT hurting me more?" Vix said, eyes closed shut in pain.

"Calm down Vix. The first time the pain sensors are activated is the worst, but it'll be better soon." Mike said, stitching closed the cut on her hand. There was no blood, but that was because the animatronics didn't have any. The gash would have been a major cause for concern on a human, but although it was enough to make Vix swear loudly, it wasn't a problem for an animatronic.

"Couldn't you just get one of the ghosts to heal me?" The vixen muttered.

"Shane and Sean are missing, and you know Jeremy doesn't have the expertise to do something as complex as regenerate skin." Mike said, finishing up the last stitch before cutting the thread with Vincent's knife. "In any case, you've had worse situations."

"Like what?" the animatronic asked, testing her hand. It worked like normal, if a bit stiff.

"'87." Mike answered, putting the needle away. He froze as he saw the hurt look on her face. "Sorry. You're going to have to talk about it eventually." At this point Mike noticed their visitors. "Oh, there you are. I was beginning to worry about you."

"Yeah, I just…" Vincent muttered, rubbing the back of his head, then he froze. "…Wait. By this point I would usually have at least a headache."

Mike furrowed his brow. "That's… odd. You're not experiencing any of the side effects of spirit binding?"

Vincent shook his head. "It's weird. After an hour of being outside the pizzeria I would normally have at least a minor headache. This time I don't feel bad at all." He shrugged. "Magic is strange."

The Puppet nodded in confirmation to Vincent's statement "I fully agree with that." It looked down at Vix's injured hand. "Why did you do this, exactly?"

"I don't know! I forgot how knives work!" Vix exclaimed, throwing her uninjured hand in the air. Vincent sniggered.

The marionette sighed. "I'll get to work on regenerating this. Where are Shane and Sean?" it looked up and then added, in a strangely echoing voice. "Shane! Sean! Get in here!"

There was a nearly silent _pop_ and the two shadows appeared out of nowhere. Shane, the more mature of the brothers, was standing on the air, while his brother was upside down. In the ceiling. "You called?" Both brothers said simultaneously. "Jinx! Double Jinx!"

"Shut up." The Puppet said. "Where were you two?"

"Well, first we had to go conjure some more silly string." Shane began.

"Then we had to go replace Vincent's pillow with a rock…" Sean continued, his ears twitching.

"After that we needed to see if the trip-mines had been triggered yet."

"Oh, and then we stuffed Freddy's head full of shaving cream." Sean finished.

The Puppet sat through all of this with a blank expression on its face. "Vincent, you should go and find your actual pillow. Mike, I suggest cleaning out Freddy's head before he wakes up. Chica, kindly go remove all of the trip-wires in the hallway. I'll handle the silly string." It paused. "After I finish up on Vix's hand. Thanks for getting it started Mike."

"My pleasure." The man said, standing up. "If you will excuse me, I need to go make sure the bear doesn't wake up to a head full of fluff." He added, walking towards the parts and service room.

Both the shadows froze as they realized that they had blurted out all the pranks that they had planned. "Aww c'mon Marion. You've got- Mmmf! Mmmmffff!" Sean stopped as his brother clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Pardon my moronic brother. We've got some _talking_ to do." Shane informed them, before both vanished.

"Marion." Vincent said flatly.

"Yes. People like to shorten my 'official' name of Marionette." The Puppet said, one of its hands hovering over the gash on Vix's hand. "I don't quite know why."

"Why do all the nicknames make you sound like a girl?"

The Puppet would have shrugged, if it had actual shoulders. "I don't really know. In any case, it doesn't really matter. I can't remember which gender I was when I was alive, and I doubt you know. So now I'm an 'it', and I could care less."

"It's just that… I've always had you down as a guy." Vincent said thoughtfully. "I mean, the design that those idiots in Fazbear Entertainment gave you is feminine as all hell, but… I dunno."

"The design isn't from Fazbear Entertainment." The magical marionette informed him. "It's from Frederick Beyer."

"Frederick Beyer…"

* * *

 _Vincent and Marcus had lived for eleven years after the orphanage shut down. They hadn't had an easy time of it, but they had survived. Vincent had become a formidable fighter, using his lightning reflexes and scrawny stature to his advantage. Many of the street roamers had learned early on not to mess with the Tollini brothers, especially after Vincent had disarmed them and was using their own weapon to scare them off. Marcus had developed into a brawny young man, slightly taller even than Vincent, and was quite intimidating in his own right. He tended to take his time, however, never acting without first pondering the outcome._

 _Times were difficult for the two brothers. Vincent had sacrificed several of his own meals in order to make sure that Marcus got enough to eat; resulting in Vincent permanently looking emaciated and starved. There was no doubt they were brothers, however. Both of them had similar facial structure, enough so that, even though Vincent was a solid hundred pounds lighter than his brother, and had different skin tone and eyes, they looked like family._

 _In order to make certain that he had enough money to keep them both alive, Vincent had begun taking jobs from the local crime syndicate. It wasn't usually anything much. Move the drugs from point A to point B. Go into this building and tell us where the cameras are. Tell us if anyone enters this particular area. Small, mostly harmless acts that led to greater evils. Vincent wasn't proud of what he had to do, but if it kept Marcus healthy, it was worth it._

 _It was during a particularly high pay job that Vincent finally went back to his favorite place on earth. Fredbear's Family Diner. As he grew up on the streets, Vincent had learned a fair bit about the old place. The owner was a man named Frederick Beyer, and he had named the place after himself, as predictable as that is. He was the one who wore the costume and persona of Fredbear, and thus was the only reason Vincent loved the place so much. In the thirteen years since Vincent had last been to the diner, they had added two new characters. The first was Bonnie, a yellow rabbit that was designed to be Fredbear's wife. Apparently Bonita Beyer wanted in on the action of entertaining the kids, and that had spurred Frederick to create the character. The other character was a creepy looking marionette puppet that old Fredbear would occasionally bring out to scare the living daylights out of small children._

 _But that was irrelevant. This job was a big one, Vincent knew this for a fact. He had been hired to transport a large batch of drugs across the city. In order to do so, they had lent him a car. Vincent knew how to drive, he had stolen multiple cars in order to get out of a bad situation, but he had never owned a car before. He had to be careful not to break any laws on the way to the drop site, otherwise it could lead to disaster. Vincent did not possess a driver's license, and police searching the car would lead to his immediate arrest, which would lead to Marcus being alone._

 _The drop point was the parking lot of Fredbear's Family Diner, and as much as Vincent hated to pin it on the place, he had a job to do, and that was far more important than sentimentality._

 _Vincent drove the purple car into the parking lot. It was an amazing coincidence that the car they had given him was his favorite color. Funny the way the world works._

 _He got out of the car and stared into the diner for a few minutes. It was after dark, so there was no way anyone inside would see him out there. The only character roaming around was Fredbear himself, giving cake to all the kids._

 _"Hey, you the Tollini kid?" a gruff voice said from behind him._

 _Vincent turned around to see the man he was told to expect. "That's me. I've got the stuff you wanted."_

 _"Good. C'mon."_

 _Five minutes later, the rusty blue truck the drug dealer he had delivered to owned drove off, the back covered by a tarp. "Idiot, the cops'll catch you in no time." Vincent mused to himself. He looked around one last time and caught a glimpse of scared eyes. In the blink of an eye, Vincent had dashed over to the young child and had a knife to their throat. "How much did you see?"_

 _The child trembled. "Please don't hurt me!" They burst into tears._

 _"Goddammit…" Vincent muttered. The kid was going to draw attention. He started to drag them into a nearby alleyway when they started to struggle. "Stop it." He whispered into the child's ear. The small child ignored him and continued to struggle, tears pouring down their face. "Stop it!" he said louder, putting the knife closer to their neck. Then, before he could do anything more, the child jerked out of his grasp and began to run off. He reacted purely on instinct, slashing at the fleeing figure before he could stop to think his actions through, then his eyes widened. He had slit the child's throat. "Oh god…" He said, beginning to panic. "What have I done…?" Vincent began to hyperventilate. He wasn't a murderer. He didn't mean to. It wasn't his fault… right?_

 _Vincent climbed back into the car he had been given and drove off, panic in his mind. He had killed someone. He had murdered a child. Oh god…_

 _Vincent turned the car into an alleyway and then turned it off, abandoning it. He could run back to the alley he and Marcus called home, no problems. He could calm down and forget this happened, right?_

 _Right?_

* * *

"…it's been forever since I heard that name." Vincent muttered, blinking back the emotions that the flashback carried with it.

"Well of course, the place closed down over thirty years ago, the poor man died soon after." The Puppet continued, finishing up on Vix's hand.

"Great, give me more reasons to hate myself." The man muttered.

The Puppet blinked. "I'm sorry Vincent. I forgot."

"I'm sorry too Vincent." Vix spoke up.

Vincent looked at her. "Why? You had every reason to hate me. I called you that horrible name, despite knowing what it brought up. You had no idea."

"I let my temper get the best of me." The fox lowered her ears sadly. "I shouldn't have let it happen." She looked up at him. "Can we start over?"

The man gave her a small smile. "I'd like nothing more." He paused. "Actually, I've got a surprise for you"

He was interrupted by a voice from the parts and service room. "Okay! We can get the toys activated now!"

"Actually, I think it should wait." Vincent said. "It's more like a surprise for all of the animatronics."

The trio made their way to the parts and service room to see Mike and Fritz making a couple of last minute adjustments to the toy animatronics. "All right, here we go." Fritz said, taking a device out of his pocket and pressing a button.

Mike seemed a little confused. "Fritz, what is that?"

Fritz waved it in the air. "Universal remote. I can change the wavelength to whatever I want and hijack most technological devices."

Their employer frowned. "Is that a good idea?"

The answer was interrupted by Ben's green eyes snapping open. The blue rabbit blinked a few times then stretched. "How long has it been?" He asked, looking around the room.

"Twenty three years." Mike answered.

Before the rabbit could reply, Tia's eyes opened, followed shortly by Theodore. Both of them went through a similar wakeup routine to Ben, and started to look around the room. "Hi Vix, hello Puppet." Tia said, a smile on her face.

Theodore nodded to the other animatronics, then froze with his gaze on Vincent. "And who are you?"

"…Mike? A little help here?" Vincent said, not sure whether or not to just tell them 'I'm your murderer, nice to meet you'.

Mike walked around in front of the toy animatronics. "This is Vincent." He stated, an expectant look on his face.

"A pleasure to meet you Vincent." Theodore said, tipping his hat. Then he paused. "And you are…?"

Tia punched Theodore in the arm. "C'mon Theo, its Mike! Don't you recognize his voice?"

The man blinked. "Wait, you can only recognize my voice?"

Ben nodded. "Yeah, our facial recognition programs got all screwed up, remember? We could only see colors, which, believe me, made for a lot of trouble." The blue rabbit chuckled nervously. "I feel like I should recognize this pale guy, but I'm drawing a blank."

Mike sighed. "This is Vincent Tollini. You guys know him as the purple man."

"No he's not, he's all white. Not purple." A childish voice said. Vincent looked down to see BB. The little robot had woken up while the others were talking, and was now staring up at Vincent.

Vincent knelt down and poked BB in the nose. "The correct term is pale."

BB giggled. "You're funny. Why are your eyes grey?"

The man shrugged. "I don't know. Why are your eyes blue?"

A flicker of motion in the corner of the room caught Vincent's eye, but there was nothing there. Probably just one of the shadows playing a prank on him. Again.

Ben and Tia were arguing with Mike. "He can't be the purple man, the Puppet told us he was dead!"

"The Puppet brought him back."

"Uh huh, and I'm blue."

"Hey!"

"Sorry Ben."

"I am the purple guy," Vincent interjected, standing upright again, "Purple man, whatever it was you said. I'm him."

Three sets of blue eyes and one set of green eyes stared at him. Vincent shrugged. "I've done a lot that I shouldn't have. I stole. I lied. I murdered. In retrospect I'm far from proud of what I've done. I'm going to do my best to make it up to you all." Vincent grinned. "And I'm going to do that, by getting you guys outside."

* * *

 **Vincent has a little trick up his sleeve, and you guys will get to see it soon enough. In other news, Fritz made a universal remote. Not exactly the best plan, but it could have its perks. Or not.**

 **I know I'm horrible to poor Vincent, but I need to be in order to make his story believable. Things will get better. Eventually.**


	50. A Few New Toys

It was nearly midnight, and Vincent had said no more about his plan to get the animatronics outside. Mike had shot him a confused glance, but didn't contradict what Vincent said; for which the pale man was grateful. All of the animatronics had pestered him about it, from Freddy's subtle nudges to Vix straight up threatening him. Even the Puppet was curious, an interesting fact considering that it could leave any time it wanted, provided that it used illusion to make sure that it didn't accidentally terrify anyone.

Vince was patiently awaiting Percy's phone call. The man always left a recording to inform him of the habits of the new animatronics. It was frankly the only reason Vincent hadn't been strangled, driven insane, or forcibly stuffed into a suit yet. Not that they hadn't gotten close. Freddy was incredibly clever, while his golden doppelganger was able to give Vincent hallucinations, more or less on a whim.

He reminisced on the '87 location. That place was supposedly hellish to work the night shift on. Jeremy had mentioned something about eleven different animatronics after him, and even though none of them actually wanted him dead, it was still something that terrified him to this day. Back then, the only toy animatronic that was actually even slightly unnerving was Tia, and that was only due to a flaw in the design that made it so the beak and eyes could be removed, leaving her looking like some sort of deformed banana in a miniskirt. Ben was the least intimidating, which was quite a feat considering that BB was straight up laughable. Vix, while terrifyingly mobile, wasn't ever that scary to Vincent. It probably had something to do with the fact that her mangled body had reminded him of a spider, and he had absolutely no reason to fear spiders.

"Three… two… one."

 _Ring… Ring…_

"Right on time Percy." Vincent muttered, picking up the tablet. Hopefully Freddy and his little gang of followers would ease up on the attack tonight. Otherwise, he was in for ten different kinds of hell.

"Hello, hello? So uh, as you already know, we've turned the toy animatronics on. This will, uh, mean that there are a total of, uhm, eleven animatronics roaming the facility. Before I start to talk about anything else, you should probably know something. All of the animatronics have an inbuilt radio system. It allows them to communicate with each other and coordinate events without disrupting a performance."

Vincent's jaw dropped. "So that's how the bastards were able to coordinate an attack so easily. What the hell Percy? Why couldn't you have told me earlier?"

Percy continued, only being a recording. "While this might seem like it's not really an issue, it very much can be. When the toy animatronics reach your door, they have the ability to disrupt the signal that causes it to close, forcing it open."

"Oh. My. God." Vincent muttered, turning on the camera app and rapidly flicking through the cameras to try and find the toys.

"The, uh, best way to solve this is to make sure not to close the door on one of the toy animatronics. Instead, flash the light a few times. It, um, might be enough to scare them off."

Vincent snorted. "Yeah. Sure. Lemme just shine a light in your eyes a couple times. Spooky."

"If that fails, you have an app on your tablet that can disrupt the facial recognition program a bit. It will make the animatronics see nothing, as if the room is empty. It can't be left on long, however, but it could theoretically work on the others. Not, uh, Fredbear or the Puppet though. Both of them seem immune, so don't try it. It also has a noticeably lessened effect on Foxy, for some reason."

"Reminds me of the mask you had back at the '87 location." Vincent said, winding the music box for a few seconds before looking for the toys once more.

"So, as you know, Vix likes to travel using the ceilings."

Vincent froze. "Oh god. I've been looking in the wrong places." He quickly began to flip through the cameras until he came to the Prize Corner again, finding Vix suspended directly over the Puppet's Box. Also in the Prize Corner were BB and Freddy, Freddy standing behind the box, almost invisible save his pinprick eyes, and BB was sitting in a corner near a bundle of balloons that weren't there the previous day. "God Billy loves those balloons…"

"She should be visible using the door lights, however. Something that makes her just a bit less stealthy than Freddy, thank goodness. Uh, so while Ben and Tia use tactics that are similar to Bonnie and Chica, Tia's a good deal more aggressive. Theodore doesn't use similar tactics to Freddy at all, instead he simply ambles through the pizzeria. It's, uh, kinda weird. Sometimes he just vanishes entirely, only to reappear in your office a little while later. It's really odd."

"Teddy can teleport. Great." Vincent muttered "As if two magic animatronics trying to kill me wasn't bad enough, we have a robot that can teleport directly into my office."

"His reaction times are pretty bad though. Almost laughably so. Uh, oh yeah. BB. He's the least dangerous of the animatronics, simply because he hasn't got enough mass to hurt you. That doesn't mean you should completely ignore him though. He's pretty clever, if he gets into your office, he's not going to leave. That's not even the worst part, once he does get in, he can jam the doors until he's forced to leave at six A.M."

"Little Billy's a major threat then. Good to know." Vincent checked on Theodore. The bear was just wandering through the main show area, but Vincent knew better than to underestimate him.

Vincent checked on Pirate's Cove. One benefit of the room was that Vincent could see if Foxy was still in residence. What he saw made his blood run cold. The fox was gone.

"I'm a moron…" He muttered, slamming closed the right door. His prediction proved accurate as soon as he heard the loud thump of the fox colliding with the door. He opened it immediately afterwards.

"Oh, one more thing. We've noticed the door to the parts and service room being left open. It's probably just Bonnie's wandering, but you might want to keep an eye out for it. That's all. Good luck Vince." Then, almost too quietly for Vincent to hear. "You'll probably need it…"

 _Click._

"Fun." Vincent said, scanning the cameras. Freddy was still a comfortable distance away from him, Chica was in the kitchen, as per usual, Fredbear was standing in the Prize Corner, and BB was still standing by his bundle of balloons. Vincent looked up from his tablet for a brief moment to check the door lights, then resumed his search for the ten robots. Ben had wandered into the arcade, while Tia was standing near the currently occupied Pirate's Cove. Bonnie and Vix were both currently standing in the main dining area, thankfully. But Theodore…

Vincent scanned all the cameras. Theodore was missing. He looked up and listened closely, then grinned. There was the muffled _clank, clank_ of something moving through the vents. "So Teddy bear can't teleport. Thank god for that."

The man looked back at his tablet. Fredbear had moved, and BB was staring at the camera now, but otherwise the animatronics hadn't moved at all. He looked up to see Theodore, his eyes completely black, reaching towards him. Quickly, Vince activated the app that Percy had told him about, and closed his eyes. There was the feeling that something was slightly off, but there was no other noticeable difference. Vincent opened his eyes again to see Theodore stomping off, and breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly checked both door lights and went back to monitoring the animatronics.

He checked the hall camera and frowned a bit at seeing the parts and service door open. As he watched, something moved in the shadows of the room. He quickly changed to the parts and service camera to see that there was nothing amiss in the room. "Weird…"

He checked on the Prize Corner and started when he saw that both BB and Fredbear were missing. He shrugged and rewound the music box, then put down his tablet and checked the door lights. Bonnie was at his left door, and BB was at the right. Vincent quickly activated the app to disrupt BB and closed the left door, praying that both of these things worked out properly. Fortunately, the signal that the tablet produced didn't have any marked effect on the doors, meaning that he could safely close one or both doors and ward off a toy animatronic simultaneously. The only thing he couldn't do while the app was running was check his cameras.

Speaking of which, he checked around again. Chica was still in the kitchen, Theodore had returned to his mindless ambling through the main show area, and Freddy was staring directly into the camera of the parts and service room. Fredbear was missing, but that problem was quickly solved when Vincent looked up to see the yellow bear in his room. Fighting the growing headache that always came with the bear's presence, at least during the night shift, he quickly checked the left door lights, then opened the door. He then returned to his scan of the pizzeria, making sure to rewind the music box. As he settled into the pattern, Vincent began to hum a catchy tune and started singing under his breath. "There's a shadow on the wall, stay calm, stay calm…"

He was interrupted by childlike laughter. Vincent looked up to see BB standing directly in front of him, the animatronic's eyes completely missing. "Goddammit…" The man muttered, activating the app that screwed with the animatronics' facial recognition program. He hated to admit it, but BB was extraordinarily creepy, especially without his normally cheerful blue eyes.

Vincent was a bit surprised when BB didn't move an inch. "What? Did Percy lie to me or something…?" He muttered, pressing the button again. Still no change. Then the man slapped himself in the face. "I'm an absolute moron. Doesn't work on BB after he gets in." Vincent stood up. "Alright Billy, get out." He snapped, reaching over to grab the childlike figure.

Before he could get any closer, a fierce screech rang out, and a figure dropped from above, all teeth and claws. Vincent flinched, but before the irate vixen hit him, the six o'clock alarm sounded, and both of the animatronic simply vanished.

"What the hell…?" Vincent muttered to himself. "They can all teleport now?"

Vincent's confusion was cut short by a familiar clicking sound. One that he had last heard when an unwanted visitor showed up…

"Crap." He muttered, grabbing his pistol from the desk and pulling a long knife out of a pocket. "I swear to god I'll murder whoever had the bright idea to try and break in…" Vincent paused. "Not literally."

After scanning the cameras to make certain he knew exactly where the intruder was going, he silently ran back to the hallway where the parts and service room was located. He wasn't exactly surprised when the burglar in question was a familiar brown-haired man. "Well isn't this déjà vu."

Franklin turned around, a large grin on his face. "What's the matter Vince? Did you think I'd just let this place lie?"

"What exactly are you here for Franklin?" Vincent said, irritated.

"I already told you, my employer wants a good look at the AI of these things. He wants to know how your boss managed to improve them so much from the old Fazbear Entertainment monstrosities." Franklin shrugged. "I could frankly care less. They're paying me a sizable amount, and apparently failure on my part will lead to their downfall. Doesn't really matter to me, I get fifty grand for finding out how a bunch of machines work."

"You're a clever bastard. Figure it out for yourself."

Franklin's humor vanished. "You know full well my talents don't extend to creating code. I can modify it, bypass it, destroy it even. It's not exactly my forte to make AI."

"What a shame." Vincent said coldly. "Now get out."

"Let me tell you something Vince," The hacker said suddenly, "There are two ways this can happen. Either you give me a copy of the code tomorrow night, at that old orphanage you hate so much; or I'll get in here and make your life a living hell."

"Option three. Screw off." Vincent answered, dropping both his weapons and grabbing Franklin by the front of the shirt, lifting the short man off the ground. "I should've just done this first."

"Too right" Franklin replied, giving Vincent a vicious kick in the crotch.

Vincent looked down. To his surprise, Franklin was wearing steel toed boots, something that he had never known the little man to do. He looked back at Franklin's face. "That was rude."

Franklin blanched. "I knew you were tolerant to pain, but dear god. What the hell are you?"

"Someone whose patience is about to run out." Vincent retorted. He knew he was bleeding, but he could frankly care less.

Unknown to Vincent, Franklin had already prepared his next attack. In a blur, the hacker quickly slashed at Vincent's arm multiple times, trying to get the taller man to let him go.

"Nope." Vincent said, snatching a knife from somewhere about his person and pointing it at Franklin's forehead.

Franklin pulled one last trick, snatching a long knife from his tool belt and plunging it between Vincent's ribs. "Sorry Vince. Didn't want to have to do this."

Vincent knew immediately that his old enemy had hit his heart, but he didn't want to show any weakness. "You're a sick little bastard, you know that?"

The hacker's eyes widened. "What the hell have you become…" He said, terror growing in his face. "I know that punctured your heart! How are you still alive?!"

"I have…" Vincent began to weaken. The pain was already barely noticeable, but it became even less important as he had to concentrate to stay awake. "A few tricks up my sleeves." The pale man spotted something behind his adversary, and began to grin. "I also have… a few friends." He dropped the shorter man, and stumbled back, leaning against the wall.

Franklin looked at him in confusion, then turned his head to look behind him. He was met by a fist, knocking him unconscious immediately. Mike shook his hand. "Didn't want to have to do that ever again. Shame life can't be all hugs and kisses…" He looked at Vincent. "You okay Vince?"

"Yeah… just peachy… only have… a punctured heart… bleeding genitals… and about a thousand cuts on my arm…" He said, slumping down to the floor.

Mike looked him over, his eyes wide with worry. "Oh my god. Hang in there Vince."

"I'll… try." The pale man replied, drifting into sleep.

* * *

 **Yes, Vincent was singing "Stay Calm". Yes Vincent just died. Again. I would say he's gonna feel that in the morning, but he really won't.**

 **Fun fact, I wasn't originally going to have Vincent's name be, well, Vincent. I didn't want to use the same name that everyone else did, but by the time I thought of a different name that would work, I already had him cemented in my mind. The name just works.**


	51. Hope

_The next time Vincent killed someone was exactly three months after the first time. The victim in question was a tall burly man with a pistol. He had threatened Marcus with death unless the boy had told him where Vincent was. The man didn't even realize that his target was the one who killed him. Using the man's own knife, no less._

 _The nightmares had returned almost immediately after he accidentally killed the first child, taunting him with his fears. Telling him that he was a murderer, that he deserved to rot in hell. That Marcus hated him for what he had done. The nightmares pushed him to the point of apathy once again, his only care being Marcus once more._

 _Vincent had used the money in the failed assassin's wallet to pay for food for a few months, before coming to the decision to get himself a legitimate job. He knew he wanted a job at the place that had been his childhood haven, but unfortunately they had shut down. The reason for it wasn't entirely clear to him, but that wasn't important. There was a new place opening up that sported the same characters, except it was called Fredbear and Friends. Apparently the diner's property had all been bought out by a company called Fazbear Entertainment, and they were trying to preserve the reputation the diner had built up. Vincent applied for a job, as a day time security guard, and they had hired him without bothering to do a background check. The pay wasn't much, but it was enough to reliably feed Marcus, and that was what mattered._

 _A month after taking out the assassin, a man showed up in the little alley that the brothers called home._

 _"Are you two the Tollini brothers?"_

 _Vincent gave him a suspicious glare. "What's it to you?"_

 _The man gave a thin lipped smile. "My boss is extremely excited to meet you two."_

 _"And what makes you think we'll go with you?"_

 _"Five thousand dollars, simply for showing up. Your brother does not have to come."_

 _Five thousand dollars was a fortune for a pair of street dwellers. It would allow them to live extremely well for weeks. "Fine." Vincent answered._

 _He followed the man to a large white van, into which he and Vincent climbed. The windows in the back were blacked out, and the two unobstructed windows weren't visible from the back of the van. After ten minutes of rattling travel, they arrived at their destination, and two sets of strong hands grabbed him by the shoulders and escorted him through the building._

 _"Ah, here's our guest." A surprisingly friendly voice said._

 _Vincent looked at the man who had spoken. He seemed to be wealthy, based purely off his clothing and various accoutrements. He wore a black pinstriped suit with a red tie and had a fedora perched on his head. "So, you're the boy who killed one of my top men."_

 _Vincent didn't answer._

 _"Do you know what I'm gonna do with you?"_

 _"Hire me?" Vincent said. "After all, if an eighteen year old boy can take out one of your top men, he's certainly got some talent that can be used."_

 _The man laughed. "I like you kid. You've got spunk, you've got fire. My name's Tony. I run this here collection of gentlemen." Tony gestured around the room, leading Vincent's eyes to see a small army of men, most of which had visible weaponry. "And it isn't often that we consider it to be time to accept a new member."_

 _"What exactly do you want me to do?" Vincent asked flatly._

 _Tony laughed again. "You're smart kid. That's good. So far you've done a good job, running errands for all of the various groups in this city. I want you to put these talents to my purposes. I won't exactly call on you often, but you can rest assured it'll pay very, very well." He stuck his hand out. "We have a deal, Mister Tollini?"_

 _Vincent shook his hand without hesitation. "We have a deal."_

* * *

Vincent woke up with a start, eyes darting around his room. He quickly swung his legs off the bed, looking down at himself. He didn't feel like anything was injured, and he had developed a good sense of it, seeing as his pain centers were defunct. He was clad in a purple shirt and blue jeans, instead of the security uniform that he had passed out in. He checked the date and was relieved to find that it was the same day, if a good deal later.

He looked up at the door when he heard someone knocking. "Come in."

Mike pushed the door open, a concerned look on his face. "How are you feeling Vince?"

"Pretty good, considering I just died. I did die, right?" He looked at Mike, then continued when the other man nodded in confirmation. "Although I don't think I'll ever be able to have children. Not that I could have anyways."

"Unfortunately true." Mike said. "I'll leave you then." He turned to leave.

"Mike?"

"Yes?"

"Why don't you have a wife? Why is there no Mrs. Schmidt?" Vincent asked. "I mean, not that I'm judging, but you don't seem like _that_ kind of guy. You're rich, intelligent, strong, and kind. I mean, I would have thought the ladies would be all over you."

Mike sighed sadly. "You're right. There have been a lot of women who tried to woo me, but none of them really mattered." He looked at Vincent. "You should know something first. I'm an only child. I never got to know my father, and my mother died of a brain tumor not long before I got the job at the '87 location."

Vincent just stared at him for a little bit. "I… I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You had nothing to do with it." Mike paused. "Where was I… oh yeah. Three years after the '87 location shut down, I met someone. Her name was Hope, and she was the love of my life." Mike sighed again. "She was intelligent, witty, kind and caring. She was beautiful too, but she hid behind her glasses and thought nobody cared." Mike gazed into space wistfully. "At first, she was surprised that a 'rich man' such as me found any interest in her. She was a nobody, or so she claimed, while I was a part of the 'upper class'. Eventually, we grew close. I loved her so much… I would like to think she loved me too." Mike looked at Vincent, sadness in his eyes. "It all ended in 1991. She was travelling through the city when it happened. A group of thugs got her as she went past an alleyway. The only reason I even found out is because her body was found three days later, her throat slit." The big man blinked back tears. "She… she was the only one. I just… haven't had any romantic inclinations."

"Mike…" Vincent said sadly. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault Vincent…" Mike said, turning to leave again. "Get some rest. Death can't really be easy on you."

The door closed with a click, leaving Vincent with only his own thoughts.

* * *

"So what exactly are these for?"

Fritz sighed. This was the fifth time he'd had to explain what he was doing. First it was Percy, then the Puppet, then two separate groups of animatronics, and now Vincent. "I'm making mechanical legs for Percy, so that he doesn't need to use the wheelchair anymore."

"So… how will they work?" Vincent asked. "Are you going to have to amputate Percy's legs in order to put these on him?"

"Of course you would ask that Vince." Fritz said, clearly agitated. He was tightening the joint on the knees. "These will act like an exoskeleton. Linked to his nerves, and able to move his legs for him."

Vincent pondered this for a moment, then opened his mouth to speak. "If you're going to say something stupid, please don't." Fritz interjected.

"I just wanted to ask if these would make Percy some sort of superhero." Vincent said, seeming hurt.

"And my prediction is justified." Fritz said, frowning in concentration as he began to edit the mechanisms. "Oh to hell with it. They'll make his legs stronger and faster than most humans, not to mention the fact that fatigue will be nonexistent with these things." He tapped his wrench on the side of the leg he was working on. "Before you ask about any special gadgets, no; there will not be anything in these things apart from the exoskeleton mechanisms and the nerve link."

"Will your universal remote be able to access them?" Vincent asked.

Fritz paused, then shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I'm not rigging them to respond to it, if that's what you're asking. It might be able to disrupt the mechanism, but I doubt it."

"Guess that's good, we don't want to force Percy to walk all over the place."

"Too right." Fritz said. "So what exactly is your plan on getting the animatronics outside?"

Vincent grinned. "You'll see." The pale man watched Fritz work on the mechanical legs for a little while, then asked a question he had been thinking about since he woke up that day. "What happened to Franklin?"

"Mike said that he was gone by the time he got back from taking you to the Puppet." Came the answer. "Why?"

That was a problem. "Did he take anything? Download any information from the animatronics? Have any of their AIs been tampered with?"

Fritz shook his head in negative. "I checked myself. All of the firewalls are still in place, completely unaltered. In any case, it would be difficult for anyone to hack in without knowing the backdoor, and the backdoor in this case is a genetic code, specifically mine."

"Wait. So you made your DNA the backdoor to the animatronic firewalls?" Vincent snorted. "Really?"

The other man shrugged. "It's actually a scanner hidden on all of the animatronics. The only ones who properly trigger the scanner are me and Mike." He paused. "The exceptions being Spring and the Puppet. Spring because he's not actually used as an animatronic, and the Puppet because he doesn't have an AI." Fritz shrugged again, and resumed tweaking the pistons and motors of the mechanical legs. "I'll be completely honest, I don't like the Puppet. At all. It's just… creepy. It's technically an animatronic, it has a metal skeleton with motors on the joints, but the thing shouldn't be able to walk. Don't even get me started on the whole levitating thing. That's just weird."

"You put fingerprint scanners on a bunch of kid's animatronics." Vincent said flatly.

"If what you've told us about Franklin Johnson is correct, than my decision is justified." Fritz answered, waving Vincent off. "Now go, I need to focus…"

* * *

 **A little more backstory on Vincent, and a bit of backstory on our favorite employer.**


	52. A Quick Outing

"HiMikehow'sitgoingVincentgavemesomecoffeeandIloveitseeyoulaterbye!"

Mike blinked. "What?" From what little he had noticed, Goldie had teleported in, said something about coffee, and vanished again in the blink of an eye. "Did someone give him coffee…?" Mike stopped there. "Of course…"

The man stood up and exited his office, making his way to the main show area. From time to time he would spot Goldie flickering in and out of sight, appearing in one place then vanishing and appearing in another. Ordinarily it would've been unnerving, but the whole time the yellow bear was wearing a goofy grin and laughing.

Mike marched into the main show area to find Vincent lying on the ground, laughing so hard that he couldn't breathe. "Alright Vince, what did you do?"

Vincent slowly settled down, regaining his breath. "Hey Mike! Did you know… if you feed coffee to one of the animatronics, they go crazy?"

The green eyed man scowled. "I hope you don't mean literally insane."

"No, no. Fritz said something about volts and amps, but I didn't really hear him, I wasn't paying attention. He also said something about not giving the animatronics alcohol or caffeine, specifically coffee." Vincent said, standing up.

"So the first thing you did is give Goldie coffee." It wasn't a question.

"Well, I wanted to give it to BB first, but he took one taste and spat it out. Smart kid. The other toys didn't even want to try it, said something about me being up to something, can't say I blame them. I wanted to try the Puppet next, but it had no effect on them. Shame really, seeing a spindly armed ghost running through the place at Mach four would've been hilarious. So, I tried giving it to foxy, but he waved me off. I couldn't find Freddy or Chica, but Bonnie was willing to give it a try, until he realized that it was coffee, then muttered something about not wanting to go hyperactive. That left Fredbear." Vincent went through his list systematically.

Mile sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Vincent, I thought you hated coffee…?"

"I do. I wanted to know if the animatronic liked it."

"If you ever attempt to give any of them any form of alcohol, I'm going to get the Puppet to resurrect you as a beetle."

"Point taken. I'll just throw out the beer bottles then." Vincent said with a mischievous grin.

"Please tell me you didn't actually get beer just to see what reaction the animatronics have to it…" his employer said wearily.

"I didn't. I don't usually touch alcohol, ruins my focus."

There was a loud _thump_ and both of them turned to see Fredbear passed out on the floor. "And that, my ADHD friend, is why we don't give the animatronics coffee." Mike informed Vincent.

"Lesson learned, I'll only give coffee to the animatronics when it would be suitably hilarious." Vincent said, raising his right hand in the air as if to make an oath.

"Vince…"

"Fine. I won't give the animatronics coffee." Vincent said, lowing his hand. "You're no fun."

"I'm trying to prevent anything from breaking, there's a big difference."

Vincent checked his watch. "I need to get going."

Mike frowned. "Where?"

"Got some scouting to do." Vincent said with a wink, walking towards the main entrance.

"We're opening in half an hour!"

"I'll be back by then, don't worry." Vincent said, before walking out the door.

* * *

 _Vincent had worked at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza for four years before he hit any issues. He was a dedicated worker, and despite his apathy he acted like a good friend, caring and happy. It was just that, however. An act. He cared little for his coworkers, and even less for the children that it was his job to protect. He had quickly been promoted to head of security once a second security guard was hired, and he was careful to maintain his new position._

 _Management had decided to completely change the lineup of characters. Bonnie was changed from a yellow female bunny to a lavender colored male rabbit. Fredbear was completely removed from the character lineup and replaced by Freddy Fazbear, a brown bear with a black tie and top hat. Two other characters were added as well, Chica, a female chicken, and Foxy, a male pirate fox. The creepy marionette that came from Fredbear's was put into storage, for later potential use._

 _Both of the original mascot suits were transformed into something called a spring lock suit. These specialized suits had an endoskeleton in them that could be compressed against the walls of the suit, making it usable as both an animatronic and a costume. Vincent hated the things, but it meant that, from time to time, Fredbear was onstage instead of those new, creepy animatronics. As a major member of the company, Vincent was trained in the use of the spring lock suits, and knew exactly how to avoid being crushed by them, but he loathed them nonetheless, and refused to use them unless in an absolute emergency._

 _It was on a fairly normal day in the October of 1983 that Tony called in on him for a job. His objective was to shut down Freddy Fazbear's Pizza by any means necessary. It wasn't necessary to make sure that the place wouldn't reopen, but Tony and his group needed that location for the next few years, it was in a prime location for drug trafficking._

 _At first, Vincent didn't do anything drastic. Some rumors, a couple of broken parts on the animatronics, and vandalizing the place at night. He was never caught, but it didn't lead to the place closing down either. It was after a couple weeks of these attempts that he received some more decisive instructions. Kill some of the kids._

 _Vincent didn't want to at first, it was wrong. He didn't care much about them, but it would be wrong to just kill a bunch of kids. On the other hand, it was a big payout, and it would be enough to send Marcus to college…_

 _It was another week before Vincent put the plan into action. He knew that the best way to get the kids to the back room would be to use one of the animatronics. He didn't want Fredbear to be associated with the murders, so he used the Spring Bonnie suit. He gathered up five children and lured them to the back room with the promise of seeing a 'Secret character'. The job got messy, and two of the kids had tried to escape, but he had killed them before they could go anywhere. As the final step of his plan, he hid the bodies inside the animatronics, to ensure that they would never be found. He hated having to stuff a child inside of Fredbear, and he knew that the body would be found, but he had to. By the time anyone found the bodies, it would be too late._

 _He was entirely right. The next day, the animatronics had all been cleaned, and the body of the kid he stuffed into Fredbear was missing entirely. Unfortunately, it didn't cause the place to shut down. It did, however, cause a security guard to be hired for the night shift. Most of the time, the guard stayed all of one night, screaming about killer robots and psychotic animatronics as they left. The only guard who stayed more than a couple nights was a bulky young man named Mike. The kid was clever, but far too trusting for his own good._

 _As the deadline that Tony had given him closed in, Vincent began to worry that he couldn't force the place to shut down in time. In a desperate ploy, he rigged the Fredbear and Spring Bonnie suits to collapse upon the next person to use them. It worked, causing the unfortunate brothers who acted out the mascots to be crushed, killing them both._

 _It turned out that a public 'accident' was all that was needed to get the place shut down. Fazbear Entertainment closed the place down with the announcement that they would be reopening across town with 'safer' animatronics._

* * *

Vincent shook his head. That wasn't important right now. His current goal was to find places he could take the animatronics that he knew they would enjoy. He had already decided that the park was a good idea, they would love the scenery, but he wanted to locate a place to eat. The best way to do that was to use his eyes.

After a few minutes of walking, Vincent finally spotted what he was looking for. He took note of the location and turned around to head back to the pizzeria. He had another twenty minutes to return to the pizzeria. He was about halfway to his destination when something swung out of the darkness of an alley, catching Vincent on the head.

* * *

 _Four years later. It was four years after the first Freddy Fazbear's Pizza shut down, and they were opening a new location. Spring Bonnie was left behind, blocked up in the safe room, while Fredbear was stripped of his spring locks and endoskeleton, leaving him just an empty suit._

 _The old animatronics were in an absolutely terrible condition. Vincent could care less what happened to any of the accursed robots, but it was almost saddening, learning that the old things were in such a bad condition. Bonnie was missing not only his face, but his entire left arm. Chica's hands were both removed, and some bozo had thought it would be a good idea to see how far they could open her jaw, resulting in the endoskeleton being the only reason the top of her head was still attached to her body. Freddy and Foxy weren't in as bad of a state, but the optical sensors on the fox were extremely glitchy, causing him to reset entirely when a light was shined in his face._

 _The new animatronics weren't much better. Fazbear Entertainment had tried to make them more 'kid friendly' and in doing so had absolutely ruined the identities of the characters. The new Freddy looked like it was overweight, so much for being a good role-model. New Bonnie was feminine to a fault, despite the fact that the character was SUPPOSEDLY a male now. Chica's redesign was catastrophic. The color choice on… certain parts was an absolutely idiotic decision, not to mention the body shape being far too suggestive for a child entertainer. The new Foxy was the only one Vincent didn't have a major gripe with, but that changed once he saw the kids dismantling the thing._

 _In the interim between the two locations, Vincent had met a clever little man named Franklin. The kid was a genius, he knew exactly how to manipulate computers to do what he wanted them to. His biggest flaw, however, was that he wasn't physically powerful. Franklin was scrawny and short, and unlike Vincent didn't have the necessary speed to make up for it. In order for both of them to better survive, Franklin would help Vincent with technological issues, in exchange for Vincent's fighting prowess._

 _Franklin had the beginnings of a good fighter in him. He was small enough that most people underestimated him, but had enough muscle mass to hold his own, should a conflict arise. Vincent took to teaching him how to defend himself, in case the kid should ever need it._

 _It wasn't very long before Tony called up Vincent with yet another job. This time his goal would be to get those sickeningly cute new robots put out of commission permanently. He was to use similar methods to the previous attack on Fazbear's but to find some way to get them to scrap the plastic animatronics._

 _Vincent knew this would be an issue. The creepy puppet from Fredbear's had been made a permanent character in this new location, and even had its own little area, the Prize Corner. The thing had tried more than once to strangle him when nobody else was around, and he had only escaped by the skin of his teeth. It had even been adapted with a basic endoskeleton, so that it could move around in order to better give children presents._

 _In order to make this new job work he enlisted the help of Franklin, his new friend. He had the clever man devise a virus that he could apply to all of the toy animatronics. Hopefully the disruption to their facial recognition program would be enough for Vincent to proceed with the second part of the operation._

 _It was. The toy animatronics couldn't tell one security guard from another, and before anyone could attempt to fix them, Vincent had already taken five children to the back room with another promise of seeing the 'secret character'. He couldn't stuff them into suits like last time, but he was thankful for the fact that the company was willing enough to wipe up his mess that they completely disregarded the loss of human life and dispose of the bodies._

 _It made Vincent almost feel sick to have to kill so many children, just to make his employer happy. But it was paying for Marcus' education, and that was the important part._

 _The weirdest part of the new location was that Mike had returned, and had volunteered to be the engineer for the animatronics, the whole lot of them. It was incredibly strange, who would want to help those creepy robots? But at the end of Mike's week as night guard, he found something that made him shudder. A note that read 'speak to them'. It was like the animatronics were alive. But that was impossible. Right?_

 _It didn't really matter anyways. As soon as Mike's replacement was moved to the day shift, the poor kid had his head munched by toy Foxy, or Mangle, as everyone had taken to calling it. That was the event that got the place shut down. Not the five dead children, but one man, who SURVIVED, getting his head nibbled by a robot. It didn't matter anyway. The toy animatronics were set to be scrapped. Vincent would receive the pay he was owed._

* * *

Vincent woke up, but made sure to keep his breathing even so that his assailant wouldn't know that he was conscious.

"Just get the money and slit 'is throat."

"You idiot, what do you think will happen when they find the body?"

"It shouldn't matter anyways, just take his wallet."

"I dunno why we ever listen to you!"

Three people, it sounded like. One of them with an accent that he couldn't quite place, one of them sounded like an intellectual, and the last was probably moronic, if conventions followed through.

Now was as good a time as any to surprise them. "Have you ever heard of the Violet Assassin?" He asked, otherwise not moving an inch.

"Who said that?"

"The Violet Assassin… that's a title I haven't heard in a long time."

"Who's the Violet Assassin?"

Vincent inwardly chuckled. These three were morons. He snapped his eyes open and quickly jumped to his feet, snatching a knife off of the closest of the three muggers and hurling it at the gun that another one held. To finish his trick, he knocked the third member of their little gang unconscious with a jab to the throat, then whirled back around and kneed the first mugger in the gut. "Answer to your questions: you're looking at him."

Vincent began to walk out the alley when a voice made him stop in his tracks.

"Never thought I'd see the day I get to kill a legend."

The pale man ducked just before a gunshot rang out, bullet whizzing over his head. Vincent whirled around to see a fourth mugger, this one wearing what looked like gang colors. At the sight of the insignia on the man's jacket, Vincent's blood ran cold.

Tony's band of 'gentlemen' were still terrorizing this city.

"So, Vincent Tollini eh? I thought you were dead. You vanished for sixteen years without a trace, and here you are. Hair white as snow, but not a wrinkle on your face." The man said, an antique looking revolver resting in his hand. Vincent knew better than to think that the weapon was old, Tony's henchmen all used bizarre and often fancy looking weapons. None of them were anything but top quality. The lone exception had been Vincent, and that was purely because he preferred a plain steel knife to some fancy dagger.

"I can't help but feel like I should know you, but you obviously weren't important enough for me to remember." Vincent replied. "In any case, you should know better than to point a weapon at a man who's made thirty kills."

His assailant chuckled. "I will admit, you were one of the best. The Violet Assassin, your title was. The deadliest man on the streets. Killed ten kids just for a paycheck. Hunted his own brother for three years, before just disappearing. You're a legend, among our inner circle." The man chuckled again, steadying his aim. "But even legends die." The man pulled the trigger.

 _Click…_

"What?" he looked down at his revolver.

"You're an idiot." Vincent said, producing a knife from somewhere on his person. "You didn't even pull the hammer back." Vincent launched the knife, catching the man's revolver and knocking it to the ground. The ex-assassin walked up to the man who owned the revolver and picked him up. It didn't seem like it should've been possible, seeing as how Vincent was extremely scrawny, but he lifted him by the front of his shirt as if he weighed nothing.

"Please don't kill me!" the man squeaked.

Vincent scoffed. "You're pathetic. You had multiple opportunities to _kill_ me, but you didn't take any of them." He jabbed the man in the temple, knocking him unconscious. "Night, night. Bastard."

He turned and left the alley, trying to remember who exactly he had just incapacitated. There was an old man back in '93 that had used a revolver, had been a deadeye with it too. Old coot could pin a fly at a hundred meters, using nothing more than an unwieldy revolver. He'd been downright insane too. Always muttering about 'them' being after him and 'them' watching. Now that Vincent thought about it, a teenager had often followed the old man around. That was probably the moron he had just knocked out. What had the old man called himself? Revolver something…

It didn't really matter. The buffoon who had inherited his weapon of choice was doing a crappy job of maintaining his legacy. He missed the first shot, and gave Vincent a warning beforehand. Idiot.

Vincent checked his watch. Five minutes until opening time. With a swear at his lips, Vincent began to sprint back to the pizzeria. Hopefully he could get back in time before they opened…

* * *

 **Long chapter this time. I'm increasing the amount of words I put into a chapter before I consider it good enough to post.**

 **I've wanted to do the scene with hyperactive Fredbear/Goldie for a while, I decided that now would be a good enough time to fit it in.**

 **We also go over more of Vincent's past.**


	53. Betrayal

The rest of the day was more than a little weird. For starters, there was a very good reason for Mike needing Vincent at the pizzeria for the day. The toy animatronics, despite having only been activated two days ago, were going to be performing. There was a secondary party area that branched off of the arcade for this exact purpose. Theodore, Tia, and Ben would be using the stage of this second party area, while Vix and BB joined the Puppet in the Prize Corner.

It was going to be Vincent's job to make sure that they remained in their pristine condition, at least for a few days, to make sure that they remained in their pristine condition until they had fully adjusted to their upgrades. In addition, he was wearing the Spring suit, not only to ease the slight headache from his little scouting mission, but to act as a performer. The pizzeria had twelve fully interactive characters, and they needed to maintain this aspect.

In the morning, the biggest problem was when the toys would forget their lines. They had practiced, sure, but they were mentally teenagers. Their memories weren't perfect.

Fortunately, Ben seemed to be an adept improviser. More than once, when Tia or Theodore slipped on their line, he would interject with a joke or a comment that would make the kids laugh.

While all of the animatronics were good with children, and they were all good performers, the toy stage was better for small children. The toy animatronics were less intimidating than the towering main group, and softer too.

Vincent was keeping a watchful eye on the children in the secondary party area when he spotted something interesting. BB was leading a young child through the room towards the stage. "See Timmy! They're real nice!"

"O-okay Billy…" Timmy stuttered. It seemed like a classic case of the kid being afraid of the animatronics. Vincent could hardly blame him, they could be incredibly terrifying if they wanted to be.

It was kind of odd then, that this little boy was interacting with BB. But, at the same time, it wasn't. BB was certainly the least intimidating of all the animatronics – when he wasn't walking around eyeless – and he looked like a human. In fact, the only thing that made him outwardly inhuman was that he didn't breathe, and frankly, nobody really noticed that.

The toys onstage finished their little performance and stepped off of the raised stage, so as to roam around. Tia, seeing BB, made a beeline for him. "Hello BB! What are you up to today?"

"Hi Tia!" BB said happily. "I'm showing Timmy around!"

Tia then saw the young boy. She knelt down so as to be on the same level as the child. "Why hello there! My name is Tia, what's yours?"

In response, the boy hid behind BB. The balloon vendor shrugged. "He's a little shy, but it should get better! I'm going to take him to see Mari!"

Across the room, Vincent snorted in amusement. Again with the nicknames. Anyone would think the Puppet was a girl with all the things people called it.

As he watched BB escort Timmy to the Prize Corner, his musing was interrupted by someone tugging his hand and shouting "Spring! Spring!"

Vincent looked down to see none other than little Angela. "Why hello there Angela! How are you today?" He knelt down so as to be on a similar level to her.

"I'm doing great!" Angela said cheerfully.

"And how's your big brother doing?" Vincent said, then froze. The little girl had never said anything about a brother, had she? Maybe her mother… but she hadn't either. So where had that come from?

"He's in college, so I haven't seen him in a while." The girl answered happily.

Vincent wasn't paying much attention, he was rummaging through his mind to find out why had said that.

* * *

 _It was 1994, and Vincent was downright furious._

 _Everything he'd built up to this point was collapsing._

 _After fourteen years working for a group of murderers, he had finally amassed enough money to buy a house for himself and Marcus, so that they wouldn't have to live on the streets anymore. He had a steady income, more than enough to feed himself and his brother. Things were finally looking up._

 _Then disaster struck._

 _It started with Franklin betraying him._

 _It was a relatively normal job. He and Franklin were to break into the museum, kill the curator, grab the large, rune-scribed pearl that was the main exhibit, and get out. It should have been easy, Franklin had only gotten better at his hacking, and Vincent was able to move like a shadow when he wanted to. It would have been Vincent's thirty-first and final kill. Tony had said that he would let him go after this job was complete, and the pay was enough for Vincent and his brother to live for kings for nearly thirty years._

 _The first phase of the plan went as scheduled. Franklin hacked into the security system and shut down the automated defenses, replacing the camera footage with the footage from the night before. Next, Vincent picked the lock on the door, silently swinging it open. He made his way past the security guards and located the pearl, extracting it from its casing both silently and smoothly. After placing the artifact in a pouch he had been given for that exact purpose, he crept through the building to the room where the curator was doing late night paperwork._

 _Or where he was supposed to do late night paperwork. As soon as Vincent pushed the door open he knew it was a trap. It triggered an alarm, one that wasn't linked to the mainframe, and the inhabitant of the room drew a gun and took aim at him. Vincent ducked back around the doorframe and spoke into the earpiece that Franklin had given him. "Abort. Part one was a success, but they knew about part two."_

 _"Gotcha. Disabling the lights now."_

 _Immediately the building went dark. It didn't hinder Vincent much, but the security guards couldn't see, and that was the important part. Several gunshots rang out, some of them quite close, but none of them hit Vincent, thankfully. He made his way back to the door he had entered by, only to find that there were far too many people there for him to take them on, even with the lack of light, one of them would shoot him. "Main exit is a failure. I'm coming out the window."_

 _Vincent reversed his steps and found his way to a ladder up to the catwalk near the ceiling. He watched the security guards running under him as he crept along silently. After making his way to the window, he paused for a moment. There was no latch to open it. Vincent shrugged, then broke the glass using the butt of his knife before jumping through onto the roof outside, where Franklin was waiting._

 _"Alright Franklin, let's get out of here." He said to his partner._

 _"Got it." The hacker replied. The both of them made their way to the ladder up to the roof and climbed down into the side alley. The hacker and the assassin made their way to the end of the alley, to a wall that was their planned escape route._

 _"Up and over." Vincent muttered, boosting Franklin to the top of the wall. He passed the pearl up to him, then reached up to Franklin._

 _"Sorry Vince. Can't exactly get you out after getting paid to sell you out." The hacker shrugged. "Plus, I heard that I can sell this for much, much more than Tony pays." He raised up the bag with the pearl. "As I said, sorry Vince. It's nothing personal."_

 _"You bastard." Vincent growled. He drew his knife and launched it at Franklin, who instinctively pulled the bag with the pearl in the way. The knife tore the bag in two, dropping the pearl into darkness._

 _"You moron!" Franklin shouted. The hacker looked down the alley and grinned evilly. "Doesn't matter, you're going to be executed." He dropped down on the other side of the wall and ran off._

 _Vincent turned around to see that there were police cars blocking his only exit. Or so they thought. Vincent drew another knife and stuck it into the mortar of the wall as deep as he could, then jumped up onto it, using the knife as a stepping stone to reach the top of the wall. He pushed himself over and searched the shadows for the pearl. After a couple seconds of searching he found it and picked it up. "Hmm…" He only had a few minutes before the police would come around this side. Vincent quickly scrabbled around on the wall of the building next to him and pulled a brick out. He pulled out a couple more so that the pearl could fit and then pushed the gemstone through. After quickly replacing the bricks, he made his way into the web of alleys that he knew he could hide in._

 _After a couple hours of pursuit, Vincent eventually got to the apartment building that he and his brother used as their temporary home. He went to their apartment and opened the door. "Marcus? You home?"_

 _"Yeah." Marcus replied, he sounded angry._

 _Vincent went into the main room of the apartment to see Marcus wearing a furious expression. He had a sheaf of papers in his hand. "Vincent."_

 _"Is something wrong?" Vincent said, confused._

 _"Is something wrong? Everything is wrong!" He threw the papers onto the table. "Turns out my older brother is a serial killer!"_

 _Vincent went cold. He had never told Marcus where he got the money, only that he had 'done a job' in order to get it. A quick glance at the papers on the table revealed that they were an extensive police case on him. It didn't list his name anywhere, but someone had penciled his name in. "Who gave these to you?"_

 _"I always wondered where you were, and now it makes sense! You've been murdering people!" Marcus was fuming._

 _"I did it for you…" Vincent began._

 _"For me? For ME? You murdered other people, without my knowledge, for ME?!" Marcus shouted. "I can live my own life! You've sheltered me too much!" Marcus sighed, "Diane was right. You are twisted."_

 _"Diane? Who's Diane?" Vincent said, confused._

 _"My WIFE!" Marcus took a steadying breath. "We got married five years ago, and you missed it because you never listened to what I had to say. You just went off on another one of your little jobs, probably to kill another person!"_

 _"You got married…" Vincent said, his anger beginning to grow. "I take care of you, I fund you, and you go and do this? I hate you, you traitor!"_

 _"You're sick and twisted, you only care about yourself! I'm not going to stay here with your 'family' when there are those that need me more!" Marcus shouted. "I have a little boy! He has to live with his mother and never meet me because of you!"_

 _"Family? I hate those bastards!"_

 _"You act just like them! You're a mass murderer!" Marcus shoved past him, making his way out the door. "You're going to die alone Vincent." He said, and left._

 _"I'll kill you!" Vincent said, not thinking. "I'll kill you!"_

 _Marcus was already gone._

 _Vincent turned around and kicked the table over. Everything had collapsed. His partner had betrayed him, his brother had left him, and Fazbear Entertainment was bankrupt._

 _But… maybe he could put the money from his jobs to a different purpose._

 _Fazbear Entertainment was about to be under new management._

* * *

He was snapped out of his memories by Angela talking.

"Mister Spring, do you know my brother?"

Vincent shook his head. "No, but I know your father."

Angela gasped. "You know my daddy? What's he like? Where is he?"

"I don't know where he is right now, but he's a very nice man. He loves you very much." Vincent said honestly. If Vincent's guess was correct, then Marcus was indeed this little girl's father.

Now that he looked at the girl, he realized that there was little way Angela wasn't his brother's daughter. She had the same blue eyes and black hair, as well as similar facial structure to both Marcus and Vincent himself. Angela seemed to have the same slender figure as Vincent and his mother.

"Why don't you go and play with the new guys? There's a white fox I'm told wants to meet you." He said, sending her off to the Prize Corner.

Vincent looked around the room for Angela's mother. He had to know. He had to be certain that Angela was his niece. After a few moments of scanning the room, he spotted the woman he was looking for. He made his way across the room to her. "Diane?"

The woman started. "Yes? Do I know you…?"

He realized that he was still wearing the Spring suit. "My name is Vincent, I'm the sole performer for the Spring character. I was wondering if you knew Marcus Tollini…"

Diane nodded. "He was my husband, why?"

"I'm his brother. What do you mean was?" Vincent asked.

"He disappeared a couple years after Angela was born. Marcus has told me a lot about you. You raised him, right?"

Vincent nodded. "Yes I…" He stopped, something distracting him. "I…" It wasn't his normal ADHD; that never actually drew his attention off of something. This was something else entirely. He shook his head, a buzzing sound beginning to crowd out his thoughts. Before he knew it he was holding his head in his hands and trying to ward off a headache.

"Are you alright?"

He nodded "I'm fine, just… headache." He shook his head, trying to shake off the buzzing. He looked up and scanned the room, spotting a familiar grinning figure. Franklin was holding a black box in his hands and watching the side effects of his mayhem. When Vincent looked straight at him, his grin vanished, and he pressed several buttons on his device. Vincent's headache intensified. "Pardon me ma'am. I need to go handle something."

As he made his way towards Franklin, the short man began to mess with object in his hands more, causing Vincent's headache to get worse. "That shouldn't be happening…" Franklin muttered, probably meaning to be unheard. Another benefit of wearing the Spring suit was enhanced senses, primarily hearing and smell.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to put that away." Vincent told the hacker, ignoring his headache.

Franklin's eyes widened in shock. "Vincent…?"

"Sir, please put that away." Vincent immediately knew that he was scaring Franklin. The last time the hacker had seen him, he was bleeding out.

"O-of course." Franklin muttered, putting the device in his pocket and quickly leaving the room. Immediately, Vincent's headache went away.

Vincent sighed in relief. Hopefully that discouraged Franklin from trying anything else.

* * *

 **The last chapter of Vincent's backstory, complete with the reason he hates Franklin so much and the reason he said had when he told Mike about his brother.**


	54. Day Out Part 1

Vincent opened his eyes. Let's see, there was something special about today…

Well, it was Sunday, that was one thing. Was it a birthday party? Probably not. Was it D&D day? Yes, but not until seven. So what exactly was it that was so important…?

Wait, he had promised to take the animatronics into the city. Today.

He jumped out of bed and got dressed quickly. True, he had been awake at 6 A.M., but he did need at least two hours of sleep every day. Just one of the perks of being technically dead.

The man made his way up the stairs and into the main show area. Surprisingly, none of the animatronics were awake yet. You could argue that they never slept in the first place, simply deactivated. It was difficult for such an argument to hold up, however. Especially when the animatronics could wake up at any time, be it because of loud noises or contact, just like a living person.

Vincent made his way to the parts and service room to grab an important part of the outing. He picked up Spring and carried the rabbit suit to the main show area. When he arrived and set the yellow rabbit down on a table, he made his way into the Prize Corner. BB and Vix were sound asleep, but the Puppet was climbing out of its box already. "Hello Vincent." It said quietly.

"Puppet." Vincent replied with a nod. "I need to talk to you." He looked at the two sleeping animatronics. "Somewhere else."

The Puppet nodded and followed him into the main show area "What is it that you needed?"

"So, you're magically powerful, right?"" Vincent asked

"Yes, why?"

"How are you on illusion?"

The Puppet raised an eyebrow. "Good. Again, why?"

"Can you make yourself look human?"

The Puppet seemed surprised. "Yes. I don't know why I never thought of that before."

Vincent grinned. "Sometimes you just need a new perspective."

"Oh great, Vincent has corrupted the Puppet. We're all dead." Fritz said as he entered the room. "You going to tell me exactly what your plan is?"

The pale man shook his head. "Not yet. Once the others are up, I'll tell everyone." He paused. "It's actually super simple."

"If it's so simple, mind explaining why one of us hasn't thought of it?" Fritz seemed more than a little irritated.

"As I said, sometimes you just need a new perspective." Vincent shrugged. "And I've learned to look at people as well as locations. I will say that things have changed in the sixteen years I was dead."

"Hopefully all for the better." Mike added, walking into the main show area with the rest of them. "Where are you planning on taking the gang?"

"Well, we're going to pick up some doughnuts, and then I'm going to take everyone into the park. For lunch we're going to get some sandwiches, then go back to the park. We'll finish the day with a meal at this buffet I found the other day." Vincent counted it out on his hands. "And then we can get back and do thirteen adventurer Dungeons and Dragons."

Mike nodded. "Sounds good. The gang haven't been outside in years, the park will be fun for them. As far as doughnuts are concerned, we will have to be careful exactly what we order, because certain foods have a negative effect on their systems. Most notably coffee and certain sugar products." He finished by glaring at Vincent when he said coffee.

Vincent raised his hands in the air in surrender. "Alright, giving Fredbear coffee was a bad idea, I fully admit it."

"I rather liked the coffee. It was a bit bitter, but otherwise tasted good." The Puppet said.

"That makes one of us." Vincent muttered. He looked up at the animatronics, then checked his watch. "They should be waking up soon."

His prediction proved correct very quickly as the animatronics on the main stage woke up one by one. As per usual, Bonnie was the first one to move. The rabbit yawned and stretched. "So, today's Sunday, right? Our day out?"

Chica, who had activated a couple seconds later than him, was the one who answered him. "That's right Bonnie. I wonder where we'll be going."

"Yes, that is something on my mind" Freddy added."

"You guys will find out soon." Vincent told the three onstage. "We just need to wait for the toys and Fredbear to wake up." He paused. "I'll go make sure Foxy doesn't sleep in again…" The pale man made his way over to Pirate's Cove and pulled the curtains open. "Foxy! Wake up!"

"Alright! Alright! 'M up." The pirate shouted back. "God, can't a pirate get some sleep around here?"

"Not today." Vincent replied. "Especially since we're going out today."

Foxy immediately ran out the curtain, pushing past Vincent. "Alright then! Today we be goin' places!"

"Sure, ignore me…" the man he just pushed over muttered. "I'm just the only reason you get to go anyways…"

The fox stopped and turned around. "I be sorry Vincent. I just got a little overexcited." He reached down and helped Vincent up.

"Thank you Foxy." Vincent brushed himself off, despite the whole pizzeria being spotless. "Now then, we just need to wait for the toys and Fredbear to wake up before we can go over what we're going to do."

"Just the toys, actually." Fredbear corrected. He had woken up while Vincent was busy with Foxy. "Well, just the three on the stage. Vix and BB are on their way here now."

Just as the yellow bear said, the vixen and her little brother were entering the main show area as Vincent, Foxy, and Fredbear made their way out of Pirate's Cove. "So Vincent, when are we leaving?" The white fox asked.

"Once the other three animatronics wake up." More or less the same answer all the others had gotten.

"What about Percy?" Vix seemed confused.

"Percy said that he would rather stay here." Mike informed her. "He wanted to get accustomed to his new mechanical legs before going anywhere."

"Oh, okay then." Vix nodded. "So what exactly is your plan?"

"You have no idea how many times I've been asked that." Vincent said, rolling his eyes. "Hell, even I don't know how many times I've been asked that."

"Asked what?" Ben asked, entering the room. Right behind him were Tia and Theodore.

"What Vincent's plan is" BB answered.

"What is his plan?" Theodore asked.

"Well, now that everyone is here, I can explain it." Vincent said, more than slightly agitated. He walked over to the Spring suit and set it up in a good position for him to put it on. "I've been dead for a while, and a lot of things have changed. One of the bigger changes I've noticed is a major increase in the furry population."

Fritz started laughing, but all of the animatronics gave him a confused look. "What exactly are you talking about?" The Puppet asked.

"Guess I'll have to go into the full explanation." Vincent said, unlatching the back of the Spring suit. "The word furry often has a lot of negative connotation to it, but that's not important right now. Furries are people who find themselves more comfortable when represented by a humanoid animal. The only real way to tell if someone is a furry is if they often go out into public wearing a suit that makes them look like some sort of humanoid animal."

"Kinda like you." Fritz said, overcoming his rampant laughter for a few moments, before collapsing onto the floor again.

"Fritz, you work alongside what is essentially nine sentient fur suits, and _this_ is what you laugh at?" Mike said, shaking his head. "You disappoint me."

" _Anyways_ …" Vincent said, glaring at Fritz. "You guys are amazingly sophisticated, to the point where it is impossible to tell that you're mechanical. It would be possible to pass you off as someone wearing an extremely high tech suit. Tell me Fritz, how would you feel if someone asked you to make them a fur suit?"

Fritz calmed himself down. "You're kidding, right?"

Vincent shook his head. "No, I'm not. You will probably be asked multiple times to construct someone a suit of the same quality as the animatronics. Can you actually do something like that?"

The engineer scoffed. "Of course I can. Will I do it? No way."

"Well, it's not really important." Vincent said, shrugging. "Now then, Puppet. Your normal appearance is, well, creepy. You cannot go into public looking like that. This is exactly why I asked you if you could make yourself look like a human."

The Puppet nodded. "I fully understand."

"Wait, so let me get this straight. We're going to be using our normal appearances in order to pass for normal people?" Ben asked.

"Yes. It's rather clever, if I do say so myself." Vincent paused. "Now that my explanation is over with, I think I'm done being serious." He looked back at the Spring suit. "Actually, I think I'll wait until after the doughnuts to put this on…" He looked up at Mike. "Or… Mike, could you go pick up two dozen glazed doughnuts?" The pale man began to climb into the Spring suit. "As for the rest of us…" He stood up in the suit and closed it. "We're going to the park."

* * *

 **I would just like everyone to know that my opinion of furries is completely neutral. I myself am not one, but I don't hate someone just for being a furry. They are used as a plot device in this, but that is all. If I got something wrong in my explanation of what a furry is, please let me know.**

 **There is currently a glitch where some of the reviews on the story simply don't show up. This has happened with the three most recent reviews, and I have no idea why.**


	55. Day Out Part 2

As Vincent had predicted, the animatronics drew little more than a glance. Some people watched them as the crew made their way to the park on the outskirts of the city, but it was little more than mild curiosity, as of a slight variation on a sight often seen. The only thing that was at all odd was the Puppet.

It had insisted that the others call it Marion, so as to seem human. It did look human, enough that it wasn't weird, but it wasn't exactly ordinary. They were wearing a black long-sleeved shirt with white stripes on the wrists, along with black, tight fitting pants that had similar white stripes on the ankles. Coupled with the fact that they were wearing black finger-length gloves and that it was summer, they drew more than a few looks.

All of the animatronics were ecstatic to be outside. Vincent had told them to keep calm until they got to the park, but all of them were looking around excitedly. The sole exception was the Puppet, who had been outside on multiple occasions, albeit invisibly. Even Vincent was excited, although he couldn't figure out why.

When the group reached the park they found Mike waiting with two doughnut boxes. "Alright, two dozen glazed doughnuts. Enjoy!" He set the boxes down on a nearby picnic table and opened them.

The animatronics just stared at the pastries. Vincent sighed. "C'mon guys, it's a sweet tasting breakfast food." He reached over and grabbed a doughnut, then took a bite out of it. "'s good." He said with his mouth full.

Bonnie shrugged, then took a doughnut for himself. As he took a bite out of it, his eyes widened. "This is really good!"

As if this was the signal they were waiting for, the other animatronics stepped forwards and began to take doughnuts. Vincent finished off his doughnut then licked the sugar off of his fingers, then froze. _Did I just lick the sugar off of my fingers while still wearing this suit?_ He looked down at himself. Yup, still wearing the Spring suit. _What the hell…?_

Vincent shook his head _Think about it later._ He was more than a little surprised that the animatronics had tongues, but upon retrospect, it made sense. After all, in the human body, most of the taste buds were on the tongue. It was just odd that he had been able to utilize the animatronic tongue while in the suit. Come to that, it was odd that the suit made him stronger and faster as well…

After everyone had their share of doughnuts, Vincent led them through the park. The animatronics loved it. Foxy was running around like a maniac, making the most of his speed and mechanical endurance. Ben was astonishingly agile, until you took into account his electrical reflexes and jumpy nature.

Bonnie had to take the cake for mobility though. He had a ton of strength in his legs, allowing him to leap incredible distances. Add to that his daring nature and willingness to actually use his strengths, he was bounding around the place. The only reason he didn't get himself lost is because Mike had told all of the animatronics to stay within eyesight of the group.

Vincent called everyone back together. "Alright, we're going to go to a more popular area up ahead. There will probably be people, so don't do anything out of the ordinary. That includes jumping twelve feet in the air, running at thirty miles per hour, and any other mechanical shenanigans. Understood?"

"Twelve feet? I can jump _much_ higher than that!" Bonnie seemed offended.

"Bonnie, now is not the time." Mike told him. "We don't want to draw any unnecessary attention."

"What exactly is up ahead that draws enough attention for us to worry about it in this otherwise empty park?" Freddy asked.

"The lake. It's the middle of summer right now, so there are a lot more people who want to come out to the lake, rather than walking around the forested areas." Vincent paused. "Do NOT swim. I'm well aware that you guys are waterproof, but a normal person in a fur suit cannot swim very well. Come to that, a normal person in a fur suit would be sweating like mad in this weather, and would be completely incapable of running."

"Noted." Freddy said with a nod.

"Alright guys, come on." Vincent said, leading the way. They left the heavily forested area to a spot on the edge of a large lake. There were several people fishing off the edge of the lake, and in a partitioned off section a large amount of people were playing in and around the water.

After the group entered the clearing, something flew through the air and hit Vincent in the side of the head. It was shortly followed by a man shouting something in Spanish. A couple seconds later, Vincent could understand what the man said. "You stupid furries! Get out of here and let the real people enjoy themselves!"

Vincent looked towards the man who had thrown the projectile. It was a Hispanic man with an angry look on his face, and he was readying another rock to throw. As he loosed his weapon, Tia stepped forward and snatched it out of the air, before unleashing a torrent of abuse in Spanish. "You're the one who's ruining everyone's enjoyment, you worthless drunk! Get out of here and let the sane people enjoy themselves! You're such a waste of space…" And so on.

Vincent kind of zoned out. He could understand Spanish. How? He had only a very basic understanding of the Spanish language, enough to say 'no habla espanol'. So why was it that he could understand it now, albeit after a short delay? He knew that all of the animatronics had translators that took a second to properly work, but did that mean that he was the animatronic, as opposed to the person inside?

By the time Tia was done cussing the man out, he was already running, a completely confused look on his face. It seemed he had expected his targets to just back out, or for the other people to back him up. In fact, it was likely that this man acted in this manner fairly often. Vincent looked at Tia questioningly. "You speak Spanish?"

"I… yes." Tia seemed just as confused as he did. "I didn't even use my translator…" She seemed thoughtful.

Mike checked his watch. "What time did you say we were going to get sandwiches at?" He asked Vincent.

"Twelve thirty. Why?" Was the response.

"It's twelve right now, we need to leave if we're going to meet the deadline." Mike informed him.

Vincent shrugged. "Just as well. We don't want to be here if people like that are the kind that frequent the area. Intolerant bastard."

"Watch your language Vincent." Fredbear scolded.

"Got it. Fredbear's going to tell me to watch my language every time I swear. No offense to you Fredbear, just something I find funny." Vincent rubbed the side of his head. That rock had actually hurt quite a lot. "Let's go."

As the group gathered up to leave, Vincent noticed that Marion was staring off into space and muttering. "No, not lethal. Of course it can be humorous… that's a bit too far. Don't hurt him, just… good. You understand." Marion turned their pale face back to the group.

"Hey Pupp-Marion." Vincent began. "What was that?"

The darkly clad figure grinned. "You'll see. About… now."

There was a scream and a man fell into the lake, shortly followed by Marion sniggering, and the sound of two ghostly figures laughing like crazy. Vincent raised an eyebrow. "And what was that?"

"Just desserts." Marion said simply, a twinkle in their oddly colorless eyes. "After all, we can't just let a man throw rocks at us. Someone could get hurt."

"More likely them than us." Vincent replied with a grin. "Let's get going. I think that moron got what was coming to him."

Mike seemed disappointed in the Puppet. "Please tell me you didn't hurt anyone."

"Of course not. I didn't do anything. You can thank the brothers for that little stunt." Marion paused. "Although I must admit that I may have been the one to put them up to it…" They trailed off in thought, before seeing the look on Mike's face. "No, he's not hurt. It's just water, after all. He landed in a part of the lake deep enough to cushion him from getting hurt, but shallow enough for him to just walk out."

"I'm not even going to ask how you know this stuff." Mike said, shaking his head. "But I'll take your word for it."

"Umm… I thought we were going…?" Bonnie cut in.

"Yes, of course. Let us leave." Marion announced, straightening up and dropping the mischievous grin.

Vincent just shook his head. "I never had you down for a prankster."

The group began to move off, back towards the entrance of the park. "I'm not. Usually." Marion smiled, a quick flash of their teeth. "But then again, I have to be serious. Usually."

"Vix! Get down from there!" Mike shouted. The white fox had climbed a tree and was proceeding along the trail via treetop.

"Why? This is fun!" Came the response. She dropped down to a lower branch, one just out of arm's reach. "I mean, climbing along the ceilings is fun, but this is exhilarating!"

Mike pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're coming back out here later, when there will be less people. You can climb trees then."

Vix pouted. "Fine…" The fox dropped from the branch, landing lightly. "You promise we'll be back later?"

"Well, Vincent's the mastermind for today's activities, ask him."

"Vincent Tollini." Vix said solemnly. "Can we _please_ come back later?"

The man put his hand over his heart. "I promise."

"Yes!" the fox shouted, punching the air. "Today will be AWESOME!"

Vincent flinched, "Not so loud. Please. It hurts my ears."

Bonnie scoffed. "It hurts _your_ ears? You're just wearing a suit! I have to hear it a hundred times louder than you."

Marion shook their head. "Actually, Vincent's senses are incredibly sensitive for a human being. You would be surprised at what he notices."

"So where are we going next?" Chica asked before Bonnie became argumentative.

Spring grinned. "Who's up for sandwiches?"

* * *

 **The animatronics get to go outside. We also get a little more insight into the Puppet's personality. Or rather, their personality when they AREN'T angry/upset/irritated at Vincent.**

 **Reviews are still glitched for some reason. I'm sorry if you posted a review that you wanted me to see, they simply aren't working properly.**


	56. Day Out Part 3

The gang made their way back to the park with their sandwiches. There had been a small issue when Chica and Tia learned that chicken sandwiches were often eaten. Fortunately, Chica was understanding and easy to calm down. Tia, on the other hand… well, the poor man at the counter would recover eventually. Until then, he probably wouldn't eat any chicken.

As they re-entered the park, the group made their way through the trails towards a picnic area. This particular spot was unpopular, but only because of the distance from the concrete path. It would be the perfect place to fool around. There would be no people, but plenty of trees and space for the animatronics to run around and explore.

Upon reaching the area in question, Vincent looked around, spotting two picnic tables. They were a bit too far apart for his liking… not to mention the fact that there was absolutely no way they could all use one table. It would barely fit three per bench, four if it was Mike, Fritz, BB, and Marion.

Vincent walked over to one of the tables and grabbed one side. "A little help here?"

"On it." Ben answered, giving him a goofy grin and walking over. The two of them lifted the table and set it end to end with the other one, effectively combining them.

"Alright, sandwich time." Mike said, setting the bag of sandwiches on the table. All of the others had volunteered at various points to take it, but Mike had refused, saying that he preferred to get his own work done.

"Who ordered the jalapeno bread?" Vincent asked, taking one of the sandwiches out of the bag and examining it.

"That's mine." Tia raised her hand into the air.

The pale man blinked. "Okay, now who ordered the supreme?"

"I did." Marion answered.

Vincent sighed. This would take a while…

After everyone got their sandwiches sorted out, they settled down to eat. Vincent reached down to grab his meal when suddenly a pitch black shape popped out of the table, emitting a loud 'SCREE!', before bursting into laughter at Vincent's reaction.

"Sean. Why are you here…?" Vincent said tiredly.

"Well see, nobody really knows why we're here on earth. I mean, is there some higher power that-" Sean began.

"That's not what I meant." The man said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Oh, I see. You're wondering why I'm here in your table? Funny story that." The rabbit started again.

"No, I mean how are you here at the park…?" Vincent was clearly beginning to grow tired of the ghost's shenanigans.

Sean snickered. "You know how Jeremy is linked to Vix, since he has the strongest connection to her?"

Vincent nodded. "Yes, but I don't see… oh, now I understand. You're linked to Spring the same way that Jeremy is linked to Vix. I'm guessing that Shane is linked to Fredbear?"

"Yup!" The ghost said happily, floating out of the table. "It's not every day we get the chance to go out! Shane's currently off doing his own thing. 'Exploring the area' he said. Otherwise, he would've been here to pull the old 'head in the table' trick with me."

Fritz snorted in amusement. "That was pretty funny. You should've seen the look on your face Vince."

"Vincent scares funny." Sean remarked. "Of course, it's nothing compared to your screams. Those were hilarious!"

"Okay, can we dispense with the jumpscares?" Vincent muttered, picking up his sandwich and taking a bite out of it. "I thought we were past that." He added with his mouth full.

"Silly rabbit, jumpscares are a way of life." Marion informed him, before taking a bite out of their sandwich.

"Only for you people…"

Everyone was finishing their sandwiches when the fun began. Foxy stood up. "Now that that's over with." He looked around and rubbed his hands together as if he was about to make a speech. "Tag! You're it!" He poked Bonnie in the shoulder and ran off.

"Oh no you don't!" The rabbit roared, climbing over his bench and launching himself towards the fox, making the most of his leg power.

"Well, I'd better go make sure they don't hurt themselves." Freddy announced, standing up. He leisurely made his way into the forest, only to break into a run as soon as he was under the trees.

Tia and Ben looked at each other and shared a grin, then the both of them followed the bear into the forest. Theodore just lay down on the now vacant bench and placed his top hat over his eyes. Vix picked up BB and put him on her shoulders, then ran after the others.

Vincent just finished his sandwich when a red blur whizzed by with the words "Tag, you're it!" and a tap on the shoulder. The pale man chuckled and shook his head, before jumping up and launching himself after the fox. "You're not getting away that easily!"

"I will if yer too slow!" came the response as the fox steadily gained distance on him. Soon enough, the red figure was gone entirely, too far away for Vincent to see him.

"Blast…" Vincent muttered, looking around. The others couldn't be too far away. Vincent stood perfectly still and listened, ears twitching towards every sound. His patience was rewarded when he heard a quiet giggle from behind one of the larger trees. He silently crept up to the tree, then jumped around it to see BB. "Gotcha!" He said, tagging the boy. He wasn't going to use anywhere near his top speed, that would be unfair to BB, but he wasn't just going to let the child catch him.

He jogged off, BB trying his best to keep up with him. Then a feminine voice from above and behind him spoke. "Billy! Up here!"

Vincent turned his head to see Vix on a low hanging branch, stretching one arm towards BB. The child jumped up and tagged her, and the fox vanished into the foliage. Vincent looked all around, trying to spot Vix before she could get the jump on him. The golden rabbit shrugged, then ran off, trying to get far enough away from the area. Vix was fast enough when in the trees, but not as fast as most of the other animatronics on the ground.

 _Up_

The man ducked as a paw swung down just above his ear tips, just barely brushing the fur. "Not today Vix!" He said triumphantly, right before the fox dropped down on him.

"Uh huh. Looks like you were wrong. You're it!" She said, using his shoulders as a launching pad to get out of his reach. "C'mon Billy, I know a really cool spot on the treetops."

Vincent sighed. Now he had to go find someone else. That was a problem. Or maybe not…

As he listened in, he could hear Vix and BB talking, but that wasn't what drew his attention. Instead it was the steady _thump, thump_ of something heavy hitting the ground repeatedly. "Looks like a certain purple rabbit doesn't know the virtues of stealth…" He muttered, hiding behind a tree as Bonnie continued in the same direction, directly towards him.

His prediction proved correct as Bonnie came into view. The lavender rabbit jumping along in order to be faster. As the animatronic passed Vincent's hiding place, he jumped out and tagged him on the back. "You're it!"

Bonnie started. "You sneaky little…" He muttered, trying to slow his momentum. It didn't exactly work, as he then crashed into something.

"Ow." Freddy muttered as the two lay on the ground. "You really should watch where you're going."

"I can't help it if you move into my path. You have no idea how hard it is to change direction while in midair." The rabbit shot back. "By the way…" Bonnie poked him. "You're it." The rabbit launched himself off the ground and grabbed onto a tree branch, finding himself just out of Freddy's reach.

Freddy gave the rabbit an unamused look, then shrugged. "There's more than one way to skin a cat." The bear looked around until he spotted Vincent. "Greetings Vincent!" He started to walk towards the suited man. "Do you know where the others are?"

"Well, Vix and Billy are in the treetops, I don't think they're playing any more. Foxy ran off in…" He looked around, then pointed. "That direction."

The bear pat him on the shoulder. "Thank you." He said warmly. "By the way, you're it." And the bear ducked behind a tree.

Vincent stood there stunned for a few minutes. "Did I _really_ just fall for that…?" He muttered, then shrugged. He probably wasn't going to catch Freddy. That bear was as stealthy as he was, and he had the proper colors to boot. Being a giant golden figure in the middle of a forest of greens and browns was not very stealthy. But then, that would work to his advantage in this case, wouldn't it. Especially since there was a particular top hat wearing figure right there…

The man knew that he needed to be careful not to get spotted. After all, Fredbear could just teleport away…

"Why are you sneaking?"

Well, there went his cover. Vincent turned around to see Marion. The paranormal puppet had probably levitated, hence why he hadn't heard them. "Well, we're playing tag…"

"Yes, I know that." Marion said, seeming annoyed. "That doesn't answer my question."

"If you must know, it's because..." Vincent reached out and poked Marion. "I was it."

The slender figure gave him an irritated glare. "Really?"

"Yes, no tag backs." Vincent stood upright with his hands on his hips.

"You're so immature." Marion said with a chuckle. "Let's go see what Fredbear's doing."

The two walked over to Fredbear, who greeted them with a nod. "Hello you two. What's up?"

"Marion's it." Vincent said flatly.

"Gee. Thanks for selling me out." Marion said dryly. "Where's everyone else."

"I was just heading over, you two are the last ones out here. Everyone else is over by the river." Fredbear answered. "I actually came out to get you two."

"Well, let's get going then." Vincent replied. It was an odd scene. The tall, slender Marion. The large and jolly Fredbear. And Spring Bonnie, the energetic, cheerful rabbit. It reminded him of the old times…

They left the tree cover to see everyone on the river bank. Bonnie and Foxy were jumping back and forth across the river, one of them slipping up from time to time and landing in the water. Chica and Tia were skipping stones, while Freddy was reading a book, most likely Theodore's. The owner of said book was sleeping in a patch of sunlight. Ben was watching Bonnie and Foxy as they leapt back and forth, flinching every now and then as they fell in. Up on top of a tree, Vix was sitting with BB; the two of them watching the water flow by. Mike and Fritz were sitting at the base of that tree, talking about the forest around them.

Vincent took a deep breath and let it out. "This is nice, you know?"

Marion smiled. "Yes, yes it is." They looked at Vincent. "Perhaps we could do this again some time?"

"I'd like nothing more."

* * *

 **The third and last part of the animatronics day out.**


	57. Advanced Animatronics and Adventure

Vincent sighed. They'd been back for two hours and still nothing was done. He was no longer wearing the suit, he had taken it off almost immediately once they got back. The weirdest part was that Vincent had felt refreshed, as if he had been sleeping all day; as opposed to frolicking through the park. There wasn't a drop of sweat on him either, in spite of the fact that he had been wearing a full body fur suit.

The real issue here lay in character creation.

The plan for the day had been to play Dungeons and Dragons after the group got back. Percy had a massive thirteen person campaign planned, and although it could work with less people, it would be a blast with all of the animatronics plus Mike and Vincent. Fritz didn't really like role playing games. For some reason, he hated the dice rolling system and the fact that you had to actually act out your character.

It had started fine, up until the Puppet read the class list.

"Wizard? How does that work?" It asked, confused.

"Your primary weapon is magic. Uh, kinda like in real life." Percy tried to explain.

"Yes, but that makes no sense. Magic is only usable by the dead and the unalive."

"Puppet, it doesn't work like that. In the game, I mean. It's not real, so the rules of the real world don't apply. Or at least, don't apply all the time." The bespectacled man tried again.

The haunted puppet raised an eyebrow. "But you cannot simply ignore some of the rules and follow others. That is not how the world works."

"I… I don't know how to explain it." Percy pondered for a second, then came up with something. "It's just a game of pretend. A very complicated game of pretend."

"Okay then…" The Puppet said, still not understanding.

Things proceeded quite nicely. Everyone made their characters, and there was an astonishing amount of variety. While Vincent, Freddy, Chica, Foxy, and Bonnie already had their characters, the toy animatronics made characters that were completely different. Theodore made a psion character, wanting to use a psychic character whose abilities could best augment his strategic skill. Tia wound up with an avenger; fitting, considering her actions the past day. Ben made himself a monk character, wanting to have a dexterity based attacking class. Vix, the loyal defender that she was, made a warden; a nature based tank class. Billy had a bard, which was especially amusing because he had the limited vocabulary and social skills of a six year old; although that didn't stop him from rolling consistent twenties and getting the best stats of the group. Lastly, Puppet and Fredbear had taken sorcerer characters, the Puppet for the wide array of elemental magic, and Fredbear for the large amount of teleportation skills.

The adventure began as soon as everyone was finished making their characters. Percy cleared his throat. "There has been peace and prosperity for fifty years, but all is not right with the land…"

* * *

I opened my eyes. It was dark, almost frighteningly so. But that was OK. I have night vision. I went to stand up, only to find myself unable to move. Let's see… how did I do it again…?

 _Click._

There we go. Full range of movement. The only problem was… how do I stand up again…? Wait, use the walls as a support. That should make it easier. Now, walking was simple, right? Everyone could walk. Except for most animals. And extremely young children. But other than that, it was just putting one foot in front of the other. Slowly… one foot, then the other. Left, right, left, right… no problems.

I tripped over my own legs, just barely catching myself before I went crashing down to the floor. That would've been bad. Falling over hurts. A lot. Not to mention the noise it would make. I didn't want to make Him upset with me.

As I slowly hobbled through the dark room, I looked around. Not much, really. This room didn't usually need all that much stuff. Just little things, really. Of course, this was where I spent most of my time. I didn't mind. I reached the door and leaned against it, trying to push it open. It didn't budge. Doorknob, right. How do I work a doorknob again…?

Fingers. Grab the doorknob, twist, push. Simple as that. I flinched a bit at the loud creak of the door swinging open, but I doubted anyone heard it. I slowly walked out of the dark room into the hallway. Which way was it to the place He was waiting…? Oh right. I can't exactly lose Him. That would be silly.

Following my instincts, I made my way through the halls. This place was nice. It was clean, brightly colored, and spacious. It would be the perfect place to play. Not today though. Today I needed to talk to Him. There was a large room, but it was vacant. Just a bunch of tables in orderly rows. Off to one side I saw the door to the room that He was in.

I crept up to the door, my footsteps silent as I made my way across the spacious room. I nearly banged into a couple tables as I tried to get better at walking, but thankfully I didn't hit anything. I made my way towards the slightly open door, laughter emanating from it.

When I reached the door I peeked inside, careful not to touch the door and move it. That was a lot of people… I don't think I should talk to Him now. Not while there are so many others in the room. Some of them scared me, like that really tall black and white thing. It had been nice and friendly looking earlier, but now it was creepy looking again. There were a couple of less substantial people in the room too, but they weren't what I was looking for.

While I stood there, a conversation seemed to have started.

"I don't see why a ball of acid does not simply kill this creature." The creature with the tear-stained face said.

"Puppet… dragons are extremely resilient." Was the answer, by a man sitting on a strange looking chair. It had wheels, and that was odd. I knew that chairs were supposed to be stationary, but this man had a moving chair.

"Look, it's simple. The dragon is big enough to not die to a blob of acid dripping off its scales. In fact, I don't think the acid did enough damage to the scales to even get through." He said.

"Thank you." The man on the chair said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

He grinned. "Any way I can help. By the way, it's my turn." He picked up a small object on the table and rolled it. After picking it up, He groaned. "I got a one." He slammed his head onto the table. "Dragon eats me. End of adventure."

"It's not that bad. I mean, the dragon hasn't attacked yet. In any case, Vix and Freddy both have abilities that can help you avoid damage." The man on the wheeled chair said.

"If we choose to use them." A fluffy white character replied with a snort. That's a… fox. Right? Foxes have ears like that.

I decided that I had waited long enough to see if the other people would leave. I wanted to talk to Him first, before anyone else. Having others there would make things… complicated. Plus, it would be a surprise for Him. People liked surprises, right?

Having found the task I set out to do impossible, I returned to the dark room. It was easier to walk now, since I had practice. Maybe next time I would be able to walk around easily. Shame I couldn't have talked to my… what was it he called me? 'Partner in crime'? That. That's what He called me. I didn't quite understand what it meant, but I did know that it made us a duo.

As I settled back into the place I had woken up, I thought about that. Yes… a duo.

* * *

"You're extremely lucky that Billy managed to persuade the dragon to leave you alone." Percy said with a sigh.

BB giggled. "I can speak all the languages!"

"I still don't understand how balloon kid gets twenties on all of his stats, while I wound up with no less than three fives." Vincent grumbled. "Not to mention the fact that the other robots get consistent fifteens and up."

"Vince, you have bad luck. It's no fault of anyone." Mike said with a sigh. He had also consistently gotten low rolls. It was as if the animatronics just sucked up all the luck from everyone else. But that was nonsense, the Puppet and Fredbear both got ordinary rolls. If anyone was tampering with it, it would be one of those two.

"Hey, remember that goblin fight? Theo took out all of them in a single turn." Bonnie said with a snicker.

"He got two twenties and a nineteen." Vincent said flatly. "I admire his strategy in using his abilities to group them up and crush them, but two twenties just makes anything easy."

"Okay! I think that's enough D&D for tonight!" Percy said with false cheer, trying to prevent a fight.

"Aww, but we were going to make Vincent roll only ones for the next few encounters." Sean said with a pout. The two shadows had taken up a position close to the ceiling, getting a bird's eye view of the playing table.

"I'm getting the vacuum cleaner." The Puppet stated, standing up.

Vincent checked his watch. An hour before his shift started. "All right guys, I'm going to go get ready for my shift. See you later."

"See ya Vince."

* * *

 **In which we learn that the shadow brothers have been tampering with the dice rolls. Those sneaky buggers.**

 **Also, reviews are still bugged. Sorry.**


	58. Hectic Night Part 1

11:50. That's what the clock said. Not anything to be alarmed about, really; especially after being in this office about a month. Not counting time dead, of course.

Vincent whistled to himself. It was probably going to be a fairly quiet night. The animatronics would need to recharge after the events of the day. That raised an interesting question though; how exactly did they recharge? It's not like they plugged into a wall or something. They could eat, but the only animatronics that went anywhere near food at night was Chica, and the amount of pizza at the end of the night was always the same amount as what she made.

 _Ring… Ring…_

That was weird. Percy never left him a message unless something changed. Like the toys or Freddy and gang. Did that mean that something was changed tonight?

He looked at the tablet. This wasn't from Percy. It was from… was that even pronounceable? RWQFSFASXC. What the hell? Vincent pressed the answer button to hear what this strange caller wanted.

After a few minutes of listening, he pressed the mute call button. "What the hell was that?" It had sounded… demonic. It was a garbled sound, not unlike speech; but it was completely incomprehensible. It sounded almost like…

Vincent snapped his fingers. "Reverse the call." He grabbed his tablet and was about to pull up the sound edit software on it when he realized that he was in the middle of a life or death struggle. Pulling up the security system, he noticed that all of the animatronics were already gone. All of them. Foxy was blitzing his hallway, Fredbear was mid teleport, and Theodore was probably in the vents. The only one who wasn't missing from its spot was the Puppet, for which Vincent was eternally thankful.

He knew he would have to act fast to survive the night so the first thing he did was turn on the disruption program in order to ward off Theo, then close his left door to stop Foxy. Fredbear appeared just after he checked the right door, so he flipped up his tablet immediately, the facial recognition disrupter having finished mere moments before the yellow bear popped up. He quickly wound the music box to full and checked both doors. Fortunately, no animatronics were there, Foxy having run up and slammed on the door before returning to Pirate's Cove.

After pausing to breathe, Vincent pulled up the cameras again. Vix was climbing through the main show area on her way to his office, while Theo was back in the secondary show area, staring up into the camera with pinprick eyes. Ben and Tia were tag teaming him, the both of them going down the hallways to reach the office. Vincent quickly checked the lights on his doors and then activated the disrupter, making the two animatronics back off.

The man sighed in relief. This was intense, and it wasn't even one o'clock yet. A childish laughter stopped him in his tracks, and he checked the door lights. Nothing there. But there was the sound of something in the vents. "Dammit Billy…" Vincent muttered, whirling around to see the animatronic crawling through the vent. A quick press of the disrupter sent the balloon vendor back to his spot, however.

"This is the most hectic night yet." Vincent stated. He had a feeling that things were only going to begin heating up. His suspicion proved correct when he spotted Vix crawling in the vent behind him, Foxy rushing his right door, and Fredbear at his left door. He quickly closed both doors and activated the disrupter. As soon as the effect ended, he quickly opened his right door and pulled up his tablet to wind up the music box. "That's right, stay in your box…" He muttered, then checked both door lights. Chica was at the right now, but Fredbear was gone. It was strange, Chica hadn't entered the kitchen at all tonight, almost like…

Vincent's train of thought was interrupted by something on the cameras. As he watched in horror, the door to the staff room opened and Fritz walked out, muttering about something. "Fritz! No, no, no…" Vincent said, flipping through the cameras. He had other things to worry about, and Mike wandering around wasn't helping. He was just winding up the music box when he heard shouting. Quickly switching through the cameras, he spotted Fredbear carrying an unconscious Fritz to the Prize corner.

But he had his own problems. Notably the fact that Foxy was rushing his doors every few seconds and Chica and Bonnie were popping up with alarming frequency. Not to mention the fact that one of the toys would occasionally use the vent behind him to try and get in. All in all, it was a disastrous scenario.

It was only going to get worse.

The night guard watched in horror as Mike and Percy exited the staff lounge, most likely looking for Fritz. Vincent made a split second decision. He could die multiple times, but he wasn't about to let the others die for him.

Vincent kicked the vent cover off and climbed in. Hopefully the toys wouldn't decide to use it while he was on his way to the other end. Using the halls was a surefire way for Foxy to catch him. He was fast, but that fox was much faster.

He was about to reach the other end of the vent when he heard clattering behind him. Sounded like someone else was in the vent with him. Fortunately, none of them could move quickly in such an enclosed space. Vincent had one advantage there.

As soon as he reached the other end of the vent, he kicked the grate off and dropped to the ground. None of the animatronics were in the room, thankfully. But this raised a multitude of questions. Why did the animatronics go crazy at night anyway? What would they do to poor Fritz? How was he supposed to stop the animatronics from getting to Percy and Mike?

 _Behind you_

The man whirled to see a bright blue rabbit creeping up on him. The normally friendly eyes were no more than pinpricks of light, and he was reaching out to grab Vincent. With a quick sweep of his legs, Vincent scythed the animatronic's legs out from under it.

Or tried to.

Ben jumped over his legs and swiped with his paw, trying to snatch the man's shirt. Vincent knew that the rabbit couldn't possibly be much heavier than he was, but it was certainly faster and more agile. The thing somehow had even faster reflexes than he did, and there was no way it would tire before him.

After launching a flurry of kicks at the rabbit, all of which were dodged. The blue animatronics had an incredible amount of agility, so much that it was shocking. Vincent knew he didn't want to hurt the animatronic, but if he had to, he would resort to knives. If this little skirmish continued like this, he would probably need to do so sooner rather than later…

 _Don't_

Vincent stopped before grabbing the knife. If he hurt the animatronics, he ruined any chances at redemption. His best bet was to escape capture and save Mike and Percy by stealth instead of war. He pulled another leg sweep to get Ben to jump, then dashed off while the rabbit was in midair. He made it a few feet, then a pair of golden hands grabbed him by the arms.

"No! No!" Vincent shouted, struggling. His captor marched him through the building to the Prize Corner. As they entered the room, the other animatronics began to trickle in.

 _All around the mulberry bush…_

 _The monkey chased the weasel…_

 _The monkey thought 'twas all in good fun,_

 _Pop! Goes the weasel._

The box in the corner of the room began to open.

 _A penny for a spool of thread…_

 _A penny for a needle,_

 _That's the way the money goes…_

 _Pop! Goes the weasel._

Vincent began to lash out at his golden captor, trying in vain to get the animatronic to put him down.

 _Jimmy's got the whooping cough…_

 _Timmy's got the measles…_

 _That's the way the story goes,_

 _Pop! Goes the weasel._

"I thought we were friends…" Vincent stated, stopping his futile attempts to break out of Fredbear's grip. "I thought I was getting somewhere."

 _All around the mulberry bush,_

 _The monkey chased the weasel,_

 _The monkey thought 'twas all in good fun…_

"But no. Instead the slenderman reject, the golden ex-casper, smokey the bear, pizza duck, Miss Bonnie, captain hook, Mangle, teddy fat bear, little boy blue, and the plastic chicken are here to stuff me into a suit. Brilliant." Vincent steadily grew angrier as he went on his tirade. "What did you do to Fritz? What about Mike? Percy? After they saved you from being turned into scrap metal? You go and murder them. You stupid mechanical monstrosities!"

There was absolute silence as Vincent closed his eyes and waited for the end of the song.

It never came.

"Well that was rude."

Vincent cracked his eyes open to see the Puppet wearing an amused expression. "What?"

"I mean, I can understand if you're angry. We kind of tried our best to terrorize you at night." The Puppet sounded like it was about to burst out into laughter. "But insults? I didn't know you would have one for all of us."

The pale man was shocked. This was completely the opposite of what he had honestly expected. "Wait, you planned this?"

"Well, uh, it was the Puppet's idea." A familiar voice said as Percy wheeled his chair into the room. "Although, it wasn't always easy to just ignore you shouting at your tablet."

Vincent blinked. "You're fine?"

"The animatronics never actually hurt anyone. A couple scares, yes. A few people ranting about haunted robots, certainly. But never has anyone been stuffed into a suit." Mike said, climbing out of the Puppet's box.

"What about the call earlier tonight…?" Vincent asked confused.

"That was Sean's doing. He may be a ghost, but he's damn good at hacking." Fritz said, entering the room behind Percy. "Well, maybe he's so good at it because he is a ghost. His specialty, I guess."

"So the rumors…?"

"Just a theory." Percy assured him. "The only people to have ever died at Freddy's are the children and the brothers."

"So why do all of this…?" Vincent was still extremely perplexed.

"A test." The Puppet said, stepping forwards. "To see if you actually cared enough to 'risk' your life to save Percy, Mike, and Fritz. It turns out you do care. You're certainly not the same person as the man who killed us. Something has changed, and all for the better."

Vincent raised an eyebrow. "So does that mean that you're not going to be hunting me down at night anymore?"

The Puppet grinned. "The game will only continue if you want it to. But now, you are a part of the family."

The pale man smiled. Things were looking up.

The other animatronics, who had reverted back to their day time appearances, suddenly stiffened.

The smile vanished. Or not.

The Puppet's eyes widened. "Get to the office."

"What's going on?" Mike asked.

"Someone has Fritz's remote." It explained, grabbing Percy's wheelchair.

The four humans and the Puppet began to make their way out of the Prize Corner, heading towards the security office at maximum speed.

"So what exactly does this mean for us?" Vincent asked, slamming both doors closed as soon as the five got in.

"We're in for one hell of a night."

* * *

 **You know things are getting bad if the Puppet is saying swear words.**


	59. Hectic Night Part 2

"So, just like any other night, huh?" Vincent asked, kicking back in his swivel chair and looking at his tablet.

The Puppet gave him a glare. "On the other nights, you had nothing to worry about. If you were caught you would be knocked unconscious and your memory would be wiped, as difficult as it is to affect your mind. Not to mention, Fredbear could have teleported in at any time and just attacked you. We were playing a game, really." It looked through the window, apparently seeing something in the darkness. "The sole benefit we have now is that the music box is no longer a concern. The doors can be kept closed indefinitely. The only avenue of access is the vent, and that's not a problem, provided you utilize your tablet to disrupt the facial scanners."

"Wait, that thing was the real deal?" the pale man asked in surprise. "After you told me it was just a game, I assumed that the disrupter was just a signal for them to back off."

Fritz shook his head. "The best way for the whole thing to seem authentic was to make it real. The animatronics legitimately couldn't see you when you used the disrupter." Fritz looked into the vent. "Speaking of which, you should use it now."

Vincent pressed the button and looked into the vent. Tia was staring back out at him. "Shoo chicken. We don't like your kind here." Oddly enough, the eyes were normal, as if the animatronics weren't trying to kill them.

"Shane. Sean. Get in here." The Puppet said, its voice echoing strangely.

There was a barely audible _pop_ , and the two ghosts appeared in the room. Shane was sitting on the desk, the only available space, but Sean was in the ceiling. Again.

"You rang?" Sean said with a grin.

"Now is not the time for humor Sean." The Puppet scolded. "We have a legitimate problem."

"Alright, what's the issue?" Shane asked, cracking his phantasmal knuckles.

"Someone has Fritz's universal remote. They are in the building right now, but I cannot locate them while warding off Fredbear's teleportation. Find the intruder and retrieve the remote."

"Aye, aye cap'n!" Sean said with a goofy salute, before both shadowy figures vanished.

"I screwed up." Fritz groaned, smacking his head into the wall.

"Gee, ya think?" Vincent remarked, checking the vent again.

"Vincent, that was unnecessary." Mike said, giving the night guard a stern look. "Fritz, there was no way you could know that someone would take the remote. It was a good idea at the time, it just turned into a disaster because of unforeseen events."

"Speaking of disasters, why exactly does this work on Fredbear, but not the Puppet?" Vincent asked, activating the disrupter. Theodore was trying to get in.

"As I already stated, the Puppet has no AI. It wouldn't be able to operate at all without the spirit inside." Was Fritz's explanation. "Hell if I know how it controls the others when the spirits override the AI the whole time."

"That's because the AI is set to adaptive mode." The Puppet said. "They have the freedom to do whatever they want, so long as they don't do anything beyond the animatronic's physical limits. Fredbear is being commanded to go after one or all of us, so his AI is overpowering his mind. Regardless of what he, and the others, want, they must enter this office by any means necessary."

"So don't hurt them, got it." Vincent muttered. "So what are we supposed to do in the mean time?"

"Well, once opening time rolls around, the signal receiver shuts down." Fritz said, turning on a hall light to reveal Bonnie and Foxy standing at the door. "You know, to prevent anything from happening."

Vincent nodded. "Makes sense. What about Spring? Is he affected the same way as all the other animatronics?"

Fritz snorted. "Spring is a suit. He only has a basic AI, and even then he's not even in animatronic mode. He's tapped into the radio signal that the animatronics all share, even the Puppet, but he doesn't have an actual intelligence to utilize it."

"Then why does he have a radio transmitter and receiver?" Vincent asked, confused.

"The original plan was to have you be resurrected _as_ Spring. We weren't sure that the Puppet could reconstruct your body properly, and your soul was only linked to two things. The suit and your body." Mike explained.

"Great, so I was going to be reincarnated as a golden rabbit. That's something I wanted to do." Vincent muttered, trying to remember something. Spring didn't have a proper AI, did he…?

Percy, looking at the tablet, gasped in shock. "Our intruder is in the Prize Corner."

"What's the problem with that?" Vincent asked irritably. There was something he was forgetting.

"He's downloading the AI from Vix." Percy looked up, his eyes wide. "And he has the remote."

"Impossible! Nobody can get past the firewalls that quickly!" Fritz said in disbelief. He looked at the tablet. "Who is this guy?"

Vincent realized what was bugging him. "Franklin." He bolted up from his position on the swivel chair. "Franklin's the one with the remote." He jumped towards the vent. "He's got the remote and he's sending our friends after us." Vincent got on his hands and knees. "Get Sean on his case. Franklin always complained if there was another person directly counteracting his attempts. Apparently having someone who can adapt to his efforts screws him up."

"You're not seriously thinking of going out there!" Percy cried out. "Y-you're going to get caught!"

"Sorry Percy." The pale man said, climbing into the vent. "But this is my fight." He ducked into the vent, gone.

"Dammit Vince!" Fritz cried out. "We can't fight them!" He jumped into the vent, going after the night guard.

The Puppet swore under its breath, then launched both its arms into the vent, strings launching after the two humans. "Get back here!"

Fritz and Vincent were dragged back out of the ventilation shaft. "You stupid clown! I need to get Franklin out before he steals anything!" Vincent was struggling the whole way, trying to tear the string off of himself.

There was a faint giggle and garbled whispering. All three of them froze. "Was that…?"

The Puppet was wide eyed. "I let down my guard…"

Mike and Percy were gone.

"Vincent you moron! This is all your fault!" Fritz seethed. "If you hadn't-!"

"Hadn't _what_ Fritz?" Vincent shot back. "I was the only one doing something. We have to stop him before he just wipes the animatronics clean! Their memories as spirits are horrible, they need the memory banks of the robots!"

The Puppet gave him a quizzical look. "How did you know that?"

"I…" Vincent hesitated. "I… don't know."

"It's not important." The Puppet sighed. "We need to get them. Now."

"Actually…" Fritz said, holding the tablet. He looked up from his work. "I can cancel the signal of the remote in a small radius. It's not enough to override commands, but it can stun the animatronics for a few minutes."

"How did you come up with this so quickly?" Vincent asked in surprise.

Fritz grinned. "I had a little help from a certain ginger I know."

Jeremy flickered into visibility. "Hey guys."

"Jeremy!" Vincent said in surprise. "You haven't showed up much recently."

The spirit shrugged. "Even ghosts need sleep."

"So, what's your expertise with technology, exactly?"

"Well, I increased the Wi-Fi connection throughout the building." Jeremy said with a mischievous grin.

"Yeah, by making us get internet form the future." Fritz muttered. "Jeremy's good at signals."

"Got it. So what are we going to do, exactly?" Vincent asked.

The Puppet stood up to its full eight foot height. "We're going to get our friends back."

* * *

Franklin was sitting on the Puppet's box and waiting. This ordeal was boring, frankly. He had expected a considerable amount of resistance, but instead all he got were a bunch of compliant robots and a pair of ordinary humans. The big guy had almost hit him, but this time Franklin was prepared. A quick hit with the Taser prevented that issue. Despite his big stature, Mr. Schmidt was afraid to hurt someone…

The other human had been pitiful. His legs were paralyzed and his glasses fell off, leaving him blind. The big yellow bear stared at the scrawny fellow, but that didn't worry Franklin. The animatronics were under his control, and his alone.

The firewalls had proven unbreakable. Somehow they kept shifting to match his assault, shoring up the defense wherever he attacked. It was like someone was repelling his attack. Franklin hated competition. It meant that he had to worry about someone else, and other people could be unpredictable. Could be, but they tended not to be. This opposing programmer had proven to be as wily as he was, and that was something Franklin did not like. Not one bit.

That puppet thing was an enigma, however. It was an animatronic, right? It certainly wasn't human. But maybe it was…

Franklin grabbed his pendant and rubbed it between his fingers. It wasn't useful for much, but based off of what he'd seen, it would certainly be necessary.

"Franklin!" an angry voice echoed through the halls.

The hacker grinned. Vincent sounded livid. Good.

He patiently waited for his prey to draw nearer.

* * *

Frankly, this was too easy.

Once Fritz got the program working, they used a modified version of the disruption program on the tablet in order to block the signal. It worked extremely well, knocking out the animatronics as they came near.

They approached the Prize Corner, Fritz holding the tablet, and stepped inside. Franklin was sitting on the Puppet's box, a knife in his hand. He was pointing the knife at a slumped figure at his feet.

"Franklin you bastard. I'll kill you." Vincent seethed.

"Not really likely, considering that I've got the pleasant Mr. Schmidt right here. Wouldn't it be a shame if I dropped the knife and it cut his throat?" Franklin said, smiling like a lunatic.

Vincent stopped in his tracks. Something was different. Something intangible, but there nonetheless. Hadn't the Puppet sent the shadows after him…?

Speaking of the Puppet, a blast of energy flashed through the room.

Nothing changed.

Franklin laughed. "Funny thing. Most people don't know this, but I'm superstitious. I avoid cracks in the sidewalk, I'm careful around mirrors, and I always wear an amulet."

The Puppet's face was white, but if it could, it would have paled. "I can't touch him."

The hacker laughed again. "Too right. None of you can. Especially since I have this." He waved the universal remote in the air. "I made a few… modifications. Sorry Smith, I always admired your work." He pressed a button, and both of the humans dropped to the floor with splitting headaches. "As I said, modifications. In order to prevent you from making any rash decisions."

BB walked forward and grabbed the tablet before Fritz could recover, then brought it back to Franklin. The hacker quickly glanced at it, then dropped it on the ground behind the Puppet's box. "Any ways, this is about the money any more. It was at first, but once I learned that none other than Vincent Tollini was involved in this…" He shrugged. "I had to come back. So where were you Vince? I knew you hadn't been caught by the police; that would've been all over the news. It was like you died."

"I did." The pale man growled. "So what have you been up to in my sixteen years of absence?"

"You wouldn't believe how much favor I gained when you vanished. Tony's long dead, but his son, Antonio the second, he's in charge now. I've essentially become one of the elite, seeing as I was the last living person to know anything about your tactics. I learned quite a few new tricks too. You'd be surprised what I can do now." Franklin laughed. "After all, I did manage to overcome your haunted animatronics."

"So you know about that, huh?" Vincent climbed to his feet.

Franklin shrugged. "It wasn't that difficult to figure out. These robots are far beyond anything a normal animatronic could possibly do. Not to mention the fact that you killed no less than ten children in earlier locations."

"Eleven." Vincent growled. "It was eleven."

"I'm surprised a detail like that matters to you. Seeing as how you're 'reformed' now."

"It matters because all of them are unique." He stood up straight. "All of them matter. I didn't see that before."

"Doesn't matter to me, really." Franklin pointed the knife at Vincent. "So, your move pal. What's your plan?"

"Promise not to bring the animatronics into this?" Vincent raised his eyebrow.

"Sure, why not." Franklin dropped off the box and stepped over the unconscious Mike. He put the remote into a tool belt pocket and drew a second knife. "Let's fight."

Vincent nodded. "As you wish." The assassin drew a long knife from somewhere on his person. "Let's dance."

The two launched into a duel, dodging and feinting, swinging and stabbing. Vincent swiped at Franklin's arm, only for the hacker to block his swing and retaliate. Vincent dodged the counterattack and kicked out at Franklin. His adversary ducked to the side, then swiped at Vincent's head. The assassin spun his knife around and disarmed Franklin, knocking both knives to the ground. The pale man pointed his long knife at his shorter opponent's throat. "Game over."

Franklin grinned like a pumpkin. "Not quite." He stepped back and pulled what looked like a pistol out of his tool belt. "This is no ordinary weapon, as I'm sure you know." Franklin pointed it at Vincent. "This is a customized weapon, modified to fire shotgun shells, but it fits in my pocket."

"You bastard…" Vincent muttered, dropping the knife and putting his hands behind his head.

"There's no way you could've won." Franklin stated. "After all, I-" he grunted, then looked down. A knife handle sprouted out of Franklin's chest, Vincent's hand on it. "How…?"

Vincent pulled the man close, almost like he was about to give him a hug, then whispered in his ear. "I had another hand."

Franklin stared straight forward, still alive, but not for long.

"Don't you ever. EVER. Think you can get away with hurting my family." Vincent said, then dropped the dead hacker to the ground. Vincent took a shuddering breath. "Well, looks like thirty-one was the last one after all."


	60. Shenanigans

**What's this? An author's note at the top of the story?! *Gasp***

 **Anyways, last chapter marked the end of the second story arc, but putting an author's note on it would have ruined the mood.**

 **Reviews are glitched again, so that's always a blast.**

 **This chapter's just a few little gags I couldn't fit into the second arc, but which wouldn't work after the second arc is over. It's not very long, but I'm a little crunched for time on it.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Bonnie looked around. It looked like it was safe, but you never knew with Vincent.

"Bonnie… why are you in the girl's restroom…?"

The rabbit jumped, then sighed in relief. "Hey Mike. I'm over here because I'm not allowed in the kitchen."

Mike raised an eyebrow. "Why do you want to go to the kitchen…?"

The animatronic looked around again, trying to spot anyone else. "So, Vincent's running around trying to decapitate everyone. The others are hiding in the kitchen."

"Vincent's trying to decapitate everyone." Mike said flatly.

Just then, a loud yell echoed through the building. "Where are you?! I just want to see how the endoskeleton works!"

Bonnie ducked around the corner as the pale man came into sight. "Hey Mike. Have you seen the animatronics anywhere?"

"Nope." Mike said. "Try the Prize Corner."

"Thanks boss." Vincent said, running off.

Mike sighed. "His ADHD is acting up again…" He turned around and poked his head around the corner. "Alright Bon, you owe me one."

The lavender rabbit poked his head out. "Thanks Mike."

"So, why are you not allowed into the kitchen?" Mike asked, leaning against the wall.

"You remember that food fight a while ago?" Bonnie asked. The man nodded. "Okay, so me and Vince are both still banned from the kitchen, on pain of no pizza."

"What did you do that was so bad?" The man questioned in amusement.

"Well, I think it was when Vincent dropped the birthday cake on my head." The rabbit said, rubbing his chin. "Or maybe it was the part where I threw that bag of flour into the ceiling and made it explode."

"You…" Mike trailed off. "You're kidding, right?"

Bonnie shook his head. "Nope. I actually threw a bag of flour into the ceiling, and it actually exploded."

"What about the birthday cake?"

"Left over." The rabbit said firmly. "It was certainly not a backup for the one that was eaten the next day."

"Well, good luck." Mike said, shaking his head.

* * *

"So how do you _eat_ anyway?"

The Puppet sighed. This was inevitable. "I have undergone upgrades Vincent."

"You don't _look_ any different." Vincent stated. "Y'know, other than your mask."

"Appearances can be deceiving." The Puppet informed him, unbuttoning the front of its chest. It pulled the fabric aside to reveal an artificial stomach.

"That's just creepy…" Vincent muttered.

"You asked for it." It said, looking down into the cavity in its chest. "Where's the stabilizer?"

"Stabilizer?" Vincent raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"My stabilizer bar. It keeps things from moving unnecessarily. You have no idea how awkward it is to have your innards wobbling around while you move." The Puppet looked at him. "Did you take it?"

"How would I take your stabilizer while you're watching?" The man raised an eyebrow.

"Vincent."

"Fine…" He sighed. "Fun killer…" He reached into a pocket and gave the stabilizer bar to the Puppet.

"How did you steal that while I was watching?" It asked him, putting the metal bar back into place.

Vincent grinned evilly. "Trade secret."

* * *

"Look out below!"

 _Thud!_

"Ow…"

Vincent sat up and rubbed his head. "Why, exactly, did BB fall on my head?"

"Vix is teaching me how to climb!" The child said cheerfully, seemingly none the worse for his fall.

"We need to work on the climbing." Vix said from her position on the ceiling. "And, uh, maybe get Fritz to give you claws."

"You are NOT giving the balloon kid claws." Vincent muttered, standing up. "Just get him to give you a positional stabilizer or something like that."

Both of the animatronics looked like him like he was crazy. He looked from the fox to the child and back again. "What?"

"Is that even English?" Vix asked him.

"I have no idea." Vincent stated. "I just said something that sounded smart."

"I'm going to ask Fritz if that's real." BB said, running off.

Vincent and Vix looked at each other. "I really hope he's going to return with a no." The man said.

"You and me both buddy." The fox replied.

Before long, the child returned. "Fritz said that he could make it, but he doesn't want to cause…" The boy stopped. "Unnecessary panic." He looked up at Vincent. "What did he mean?"

"He means that having you levitate around would make people freak out." Vincent said flatly.

"Oh, like when Puppet jumps out of the box!" BB said happily. "I wanna do that!"

"No. No you don't. Trust me on this one kid." The man assured him. "It would be a very, very, bad idea."


	61. Hell on Earth

Vincent got out of bed and stretched. He had slept well, and was ready for another day of work.

 _Something's not right._

The man shook his head. Things hadn't quite been the same as usual since Franklin broke in a few days ago. Tensions were a bit high, but things were beginning to calm down now. Vincent walked over to his closet and got dressed. Franklin's body had been easy to get rid of, relatively speaking. The Puppet basically disintegrated him, after Vincent removed the man's amulet. Apparently it was strong enough to ward off supernatural forces, hence the Puppet and the shadows being unable to attack the hacker. According to the Puppet, the things were relatively expensive, due to requiring specific herbs and materials that were hard to come by.

"Franklin must really have believed in spirits if he spent so much money on a hunk of wood…" Vincent thought out loud. He shrugged, then got dressed. His uniform had obtained a couple bloodstains, but he knew a guy for that. For now he just wore a purple t-shirt and jeans.

Vincent made his way up to the main show area. Opening time was later today, and there were no birthdays planned, thankfully.

"Good morning Vincent!~" Chica said in a singsong voice. "How are you this morning?"

"Doing pretty good, how about you?" The man replied.

 _"You murdered us"_

"What was that?" Vincent asked, confused.

"What was what?" Chica questioned him. "By the way, one egg or two?" While Tia and Chica still objected to people eating chicken, neither of them cared much about people eating eggs. That suited Vincent just fine, especially since Chica made the best breakfast.

"Um…" the man tried to shake off the feeling that something was off. "Two, please."

"Bacon, right?" Chica asked, heading towards the kitchen.

"You know me so well." The man answered with a grin. He waved at the animatronic as she entered the kitchen.

Vincent pulled a chair out from a table and sat down in it. Today would probably be a good day. Acting out Spring was always fun, and he didn't even have to worry about Franklin any more. All in all, things were looking pretty good.

"Heads up Vince!" A voice shouted, just an instant before a football collided with the back of Vincent's head.

"Ow." Vincent muttered, turning around. Bonnie was standing there with a mischievous grin on his face.

"You okay?" the rabbit asked.

"Yeah. Just a bit surprised." The man answered, rubbing the point of impact.

 _Something's not right._

Vincent blinked. Something seemed off, but he couldn't place it.

"Toss it over here!" Ben called from the other side of the room. Vincent shrugged, then threw the football to the blue rabbit.

"Enjoy." The man said with a smile.

"See ya Vince!" the rabbits said in unison, running off.

The man waved at them as they ran off and grabbed a book that was on the table in front of him. "Theo! Found your book!"

"You don't need to shout, I'm right here." Theodore said from another table in the room. "I'll get it once I finish this game of chess with Freddy."

"I'll play the winner." Vincent said.

"Sure thing." Freddy replied.

"Thanks guys." Vincent said happily. He looked at his watch. Usually Chica didn't take this long to cook…

He stood up and walked into the kitchen, whistling on his way. He reached the door and pushed it open. Usually he wouldn't enter the kitchen, mostly because he still wasn't allowed, but he was worried about Chica. "Chica? Everything okay?"

"Everything's just… fine." The chicken replied, looking away from him and staring at the counter.

"Is something wrong?" the man asked her.

"…" Chica didn't say anything, but she grabbed the knife on the counter.

"Chica?" Vincent was extremely worried.

 _"You murdered us."_ The animatronic turned around. Her eyes were missing entirely, and as Vincent watched, blood was pouring from the eye sockets. _"You murdered us, and now you've murdered another."_

Vincent backed up, hands raised. "Cheeks…? What's going on?" This was extremely out of character for the kind and caring animatronic.

 _"I'm going to make sure you never murder again."_ Chica began to walk towards him, knife in hand.

The man backed up, hands still raised. "Chica?"

He ducked as the animatronic swung the knife at his head, then grabbed her wrist and tried to force her to drop the knife. To his surprise, it failed, causing no effect whatsoever. He looked up into Chica's empty eye sockets and gasped in shock. There wasn't even the faint light that signified the presence of a spirit.

 _Something's not right._

"What the hell is going on?" Vincent asked, dodging another clumsy swing of the knife. All of the animatronics were shockingly fast and strong, but only a few of them knew how to fight or use weapons. Chica was far from the most combatant of the spirits, and she was certainly the slowest animatronic.

Vincent ducked out of the kitchen and closed the door behind him. Freddy looked up at him. "What's the problem Vincent?"

"Chica's lost it!" The man answered, grabbing a chair and trying to wedge the door shut.

"Maybe she's finally come to her senses."

Vincent looked up. "What?"

"You heard me Vincent. Chica's finally realized the truth, and now the rest of us know as well." Freddy stood up, pushing his chair back, and looked at Vincent.

His eyes were completely gone, and blood was pouring from the empty sockets.

"Not you too Freddy…" Vincent said in despair. The bear was far more cunning than Chica, and was better at combat as well. There was no way Vincent could possibly survive combat with the animatronics, and Freddy in particular was extremely dangerous.

 _"You murdered us Vincent Tollini. Now we're going to return the favor"_ The animatronic started to walk towards him. He was nowhere near as fast as Foxy or Bonnie, but that didn't matter. What did matter was that the bear was coming after him, and that he was much more capable of killing him than Chica had been.

Vincent edged around the room, sticking to the walls. If he got cornered, he was dead. Freddy might not have the same mobility as the others, but within arm's reach he was as fast as lightning. The man made it to the doorway to the Prize Corner and ducked inside. Hopefully he could use something in this room to hide from the killer robots.

"Hey Vince, what's up?"

The man jumped and whirled around. He had forgotten that this room had two animatronic occupants in addition to the Puppet. He sighed in relief when he saw that it was just Vix. "Freddy and Chica have lost it."

 _"You deserved it."_

He froze as, right in front of him, Vix's eyes vanished. Blood began to pour out of the eye sockets like tears, and the fox started to walk towards him. "No, not you too Vix…" He muttered and backed up. His original plan in entering the Prize Corner was to hide in the Puppet's box. None of the other animatronics would open it just out of curiosity; but since Vix was out for his blood too, the hiding place was ruined.

Vincent circled the white fox slowly and made his way to the other exit. BB seemed to be offline for now, but there was a trickle of red fluid dripping out from his eyelids. This was disaster incarnate. It seemed like all of the animatronics had become… changed. Murderous.

As Vincent exited the Prize Corner, he realized that he was going into an area with more animatronics. The toy stage area.

And there were five in there.

He turned around, his pursuer temporarily forgotten, and his eyes widened in horror.

Theodore, Tia, Ben, Foxy, and Bonnie were all in this room.

All of them had the same void-like eyes.

All of them had blood dripping down their cheeks like tears.

Vincent dashed through the room, trying to make his way to the hallway that connected the guard office, the toy stage, and the main stage. If his guess was correct, then he could just treat this like the average night shift. Keep the animatronics out and don't panic.

He entered the office and slammed both doors down, breathing a sigh of relief. If he could just wait here until whatever the hell was going on ended…

But he couldn't. He had to find out what was happening. He looked out the window. All nine animatronics were standing in the same hallway, completely preventing the use of that avenue of escape.

Just then, he heard a childish giggle, along with garbled speech.

He looked towards the desk to see none other than Fredbear, sitting slumped on the floor with his head tilted to the side and his jaw hanging open. Twin streams of red poured from his eye sockets.

"Oh god no. Oh hell no." Vincent muttered to himself, opening the other door and running out. There was no way he was going into the left hallway with no less than nine animatronics in there, and Fredbear was going to force him to leave the office anyway.

The man ran down the hallway, to find his escape blocked by the golden bear. On one side, there was a psychic, teleporting bear, and on the other were nine different robots. He was sandwiched.

"Vincent! In here!"

The parts and service room! The Puppet had the door pushed open and was calling to him to come in. This could help him immensely. Vincent ducked into the room and the Puppet closed the door. "Thank god you're here. Not to mention sane."

"Yes, it would be extremely unfortunate if they had caught you." The Puppet said, still standing at the door.

"I'm just glad you haven't been affected by whatever has the others. What's going on?" Vincent paced around the room. It wasn't exactly a large room, but it was spacious enough for around twenty people to comfortably share it.

"Something has changed. Something fundamental to their beliefs." The marionette informed him. "Something that has immense repercussions. Did any of them say anything?"

Vincent stopped in thought. "They called me their murderer, but you already know that. They also said something about me murdering another, but I don't –" He stopped. "Oh. They're talking about Franklin. But I had no choice! He was going to shoot me, and then he would've killed Mike and Fritz!"

"Did they say anything else?"

"Something about me deserving… something, and how they were going to 'return the favor', which I'm guessing has to do with them killing me." He started to pace again.

 _"You're entirely correct."_

"What?" He looked at the Puppet, beginning to think that maybe this was a bad idea.

 _"We will be returning the favor."_ The Puppet backed away from the door, and the other ten animatronics filed into the room. The tall figure turned towards him, its pinprick eyes absent and its purple tearstains a redder color than usual. _"You will not escape this time Vincent Tollini."_

The man backed up until he hit the wall. "Guys? What happened to you? Why are you doing this?"

 _"You murdered us Vincent Tollini. You killed us all and left our bodies to rot. Now we will show you what it feels like to die alone and afraid."_ All of the animatronics spoke in one voice, the Puppet leading them towards him. Suddenly, the tall figure jerked its arms towards the man, launching strings that tied him up. The Puppet grabbed the now immobile Vincent and lifted him into the air, then, with the flick of its other hand, the Spring suit in the corner of the room opened.

 _This is not real_

Vincent started to scream, unable to move his limbs in order to try and struggle out. "Let me go!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. It was pointless, however, as he was slowly lowered into the golden rabbit suit. "No! I am NOT going to be springtrapped again!"

 _"What makes you think you have a choice?"_ This voice was new, but familiar. A short, brown haired figure came into sight. Franklin sneered at him. _"You're dead, Tollini. You just don't know it yet."_

The suit closed on Vincent, sealing him in darkness. Usually he saw through the suit's eyes by now. Why didn't he see anything? Was the animatronic blindfolded? Did the Puppet sever his spirit bond with Spring?

 _"Goodbye Vincent."_ The supposedly impossible to trigger spring locks broke, launching the animatronic parts through Vincent's body. His face was obliterated immediately as the eyes of the animatronic crushed his skull. The endoskeleton crushed his bones and turned his heart into a pile of mush, while at the same time ripping through his skin, effectively skinning him alive. Vincent screamed. He had never been in this much pain before, not even when he had been springtrapped the first time.

 _This isn't real_

He lay on the floor motionless, not able to move with his skeleton and muscle destroyed. The strings that had bound him were sliced through, he was sure, but that didn't help him in any way. He was blind too, with his eyes and skill destroyed, and unable to see through the animatronic's eyes for some reason. It was almost like he was wearing a normal spring lock suit, minus the fact that the normal spring lock suits had transparent eyes, allowing the wearer to see.

 _This isn't real_

Vincent sat there in pain, not sure whether or not time was passing. He knew for a fact that he should be dead, that he was dead; but he still felt the intense pain of the endoskeleton shredding his skin and flesh. His vocal cords were cut through, and his airway was sliced. By all means, he shouldn't even be able to think or process pain, but he was still conscious.

 _Wake up._

* * *

 **Hey everyone, sorry this chapter is delayed, weekends are sometimes hard for me to write on, due to life.**

 **I got a guest reviewer telling me that the murderer's name is William. This is correct, but only for the book canon. Scott Cawthon himself said that the book canon and the game canon are not connected, meaning that while it is possible that the murderer in the games is the same William Afton, it is not certain. Since we do not have a canon name for the game's murderer, I have named my version of him Vincent Tollini.**


	62. Awake

Vincent woke up screaming and soaked in sweat.

He looked down at himself. No blood, no injuries. But it had felt so real…

The man shuddered. That had been too real for comfort. Let's see… how much did he remember, apart from the abject terror and the unbearable pain…

Well, most, if not all, of the events of that nightmare had been realistic. The only real difference between dreams and reality had been that the animatronics didn't hate him. Not any more, anyways. The bleeding eyes thing was extremely unsettling, almost to an extreme. One thing was for sure though. He wasn't going to be caught unaware by another nightmare.

Vincent jumped as someone knocked on his door, followed shortly by the sound of Mike's voice. "Everything okay Vince?"

"Yeah. I'm… fine." The pale man answered. Normally he wasn't this jumpy, what was up with that…?

"Is something wrong?" Mike asked. "I heard screaming."

"Just a nightmare." Came the answer as Vincent got dressed. He skipped on the purple shirt and jeans, this time wearing basketball shorts and a white t-shirt.

"You want to talk about it?" It was surprising to Vincent that Mike was younger than he was. Especially considering how mature the green eyed man was. Unlike Vincent, Mike would have been a good father and family man.

"…no." the answer came eventually. Vincent knew it was a bad idea to try and deal with this on his own, but he wasn't ready to share his torture with anyone, even Mike.

"Well, if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm always here to help." That was Mike in a nutshell. He was caring and fair, even to a man who had murdered more than thirty people.

"Thanks Mike." Vincent said. He waited for his employer to walk away before exiting his room. Vincent didn't want to talk with anyone right now.

As he walked through the hallway, Vincent tried to think of what went wrong. Was this just residual guilt from killing Franklin? Did he actually do something to deserve the fear and pain of the nightmare? Come to that, how had he even felt pain? His pain centers were dead, more or less literally. Did that just not apply in the dreams?

He was so lost in thought he didn't even notice the two shadowy figures in the staff room as he exited the area.

"Hey Vince!"

Vincent jumped in surprise, then breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, hello you two. What's up?"

The two shadows were more or less just standing there and doing nothing. But… something seemed off. Sean seemed normal, but Shane's bowtie was sideways…

"Not much." Sean answered him.

"Yeah, we're just goofing around like usual." Sean said.

Vincent did a double take. Shane had spoken second, but it had sounded like…

"Sean! You screwed it up!" The shadow rabbit said, with Shane's voice.

"What? How?" the bear seemed confused, then stopped. "Oh. I forgot to do the voice change."

"You- what?" Vincent sputtered. "You switched appearances?"

Both of the ghosts faded to their original appearances. It was like looking at a shadow after the light changed, a fitting shift considering what the two spirits looked like. "As intangible spirits, we have no boundaries on what we look and sound like. A little concentration on our parts can lead to us looking however we want." Shane explained.

"Wait, so why don't you two choose to look like your living forms?" Vincent was confused.

"Remaining in an altered form slowly drains energy." The shadow bear replied. "Since we died in the spring lock suits, both of us have a form reminiscent of the suits." He paused. "I have no idea why we're shadows."

"Shane, your dork side is showing." Sean sniggered, punching his brother in the shoulder.

"It's not my fault I have half a brain." Shane shot back, and the two brothers faded out.

Vincent shook his head. Those two were such buffoons. Funny, but both of them acted like fools. Sean was always the more radical and creative of the two, while Shane was the more grounded and intelligent brother.

The man made his way into the main show area. This was the room where everything went wrong in the nightmare.

"Good morning Vincent!~

"GAH!" the man shouted and jumped.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" Chica apologized and walked over.

"It's fine. I'm fine." Vincent assured her, trying to calm himself down. "I'm just… jumpy today."

"I'm sorry Vince." Chica said apologetically. "Do you want some breakfast?"

"What're you making?" Vincent asked cautiously.

"Your favorite, bacon and eggs." Chica replied.

Vincent hesitated for a few moments, then shook his head. "I think I'll just have cereal and an apple today. Thanks though."

Chica shrugged. "Is there anything else you want?"

"No, thanks" Vincent said, walking past her into the kitchen. "Just gonna grab an apple."

"O-okay then." Chica said sadly. Vincent was acting cold today, and that was odd. Especially since he had recently become more open and friendly.

After grabbing the apple, Vincent went to the security office. Let's see, what was the actual plan for today…? Oh right. They were going to hire a new security guard. There weren't many people who had signed up for the job. Apparently Freddy Fazbear's still had a bad reputation with regards to night guards.

Apparently Vincent would be needed to interview the candidates. Mike had told him that, since Vincent had criminal experience, he would be the best person to make certain that nobody they hired was likely to mistreat the animatronics.

Mike's idea was to slowly introduce people to their little family. The best way to do this was to bring in one new person every now and then, and have them interact with the animatronics after hours. Part of the plan needed the candidates to not have a criminal background.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. The candidates needed to have a personality that meant that they wouldn't sabotage the place, steal from it, or injure the animatronics. The night guards wouldn't be told ahead of time that the animatronics were alive, and the only time they would learn about the animatronics moving at night was when Percy called them. It would serve a dual purpose, thrill seekers could take the job and get their adrenalin rush, while people searching for a legitimate avenue of employment would be moved to a different position after being welcomed into the animatronics' family. Of course, that was if they didn't get fired on their first week, be it because the animatronics didn't trust them or because the cameras stationed throughout the building and in the office caught them doing something against the rules.

That was another thing that had surprised Vincent. Mike, Percy, and Fritz had placed a camera in the security office. Apparently Fritz had wired it so that you couldn't possibly see the camera on the tablet, at least when you were in the office. Of course, every camera had blind spots, but that's what the animatronics were for.

Vincent left the office and entered the parts and service room. This was where he had been springtrapped in the nightmare. He didn't exactly want to be in here, but once opening time came around, he would have to wear the Spring suit. Vincent wasn't exactly looking forward to that part, but he had to do it.

"Are you okay Vincent?"

The man jumped and whirled around. "God, today's just the day everything scares me."

"Is there something wrong?" The Puppet asked him. It had a concerned look on its painted face.

"I'm fine." Vincent answered, waving it off. "Just a bit stressed."

"Are you certain?" the Puppet questioned.

"Yes I'm certain." Vincent replied irritably. "Leave me alone."

"Vincent." The slender creature reached forward and grabbed his shoulders. "You are not fine. Something is bothering you. Something profound. What is it?"

The man wrestled its hands off. "I said I'm fine."

"Vincent." The Puppet said sternly. "Look at me."

Vincent looked into the black voids of the Puppet's eyes and his mind reeled. He knew that the Puppet's mask lacked eyes, but the recent memory of the nightmare still imprinted horror into his mind.

As he looked into the darkness, he saw the pinpricks of light that signified spiritual possession. It gave him the comfort of the fact that this wasn't the heartless monster that had locked him in the Spring suit, but was the spirit that had given him a new life.

"There is darkness within your mind. Darkness that was not there before. What has changed…?" The Puppet muttered to itself.

It pulled back. "Something has planted the seeds of darkness in your mind. A supernatural force that I cannot discern."

"So what the hell does that mean?" Vincent asked, clearly agitated.

"I do not know for certain, but it does mean that whatever is bothering you is not of your doing." The Puppet said.

"Great, so you've got some advice that is entirely useless to me. Thanks." Vincent said sarcastically.

"Vincent, this is not you." The tall puppet told him.

"Sorry Puppet, but I'm just… stressed." Vincent apologized. "Had a terrifyingly real dream last night…"

"Hmm…" The Puppet paused in thought.

"I need to be off." Vincent said, checking his watch. "We've got three people coming in for interviews before we open."

"Well, I won't hold you." The haunted doll said. "Just… do one thing for me.

"hm?"

"Stay safe, will you?"

* * *

 **So, in case you could not tell, last chapter was indeed a nightmare. Some things to tip you off: the animatronics being all horror-story. Vincent feeling more than slight pain. And the spring locks failed, something that has been stated multiple times to be impossible.**


	63. Warring Mind

"Alright then Mark, the job is yours."

"Yes!" the new employee of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza said.

"Fair warning, things can get a little… strange at night." Mike cautioned.

"Oh, I'm sure I can handle it." Mark replied picking up his stuff. "See you later."

"See you later." Mike said as the new night guard left.

"That went well." Vincent stated. "First guy we get in and we hire him."

"Well, if he does well, he'll be promoted, and one of the other candidates can be brought in. If he does poorly, we'll fire him, and the same thing will happen." Mike explained. "The only thing I'm worried about is someone hurting the animatronics."

"What about the animatronics hurting someone?"

Mike shot him a glare. "You know they're careful enough for that not to happen."

Vincent sighed. "I'm sorry. Feeling snappy today."

"Tell you what, Fritz has been working on upgrading Spring's AI. If you want to take today off, you can." Mike said sympathetically. "The AI should be good enough to walk around and learn, even if it's not good enough to emulate a person perfectly."

"I…" Vincent hesitated. He wasn't feeling himself today, but he always felt better after wearing the Spring suit. "No thanks. I think I'll be fine."

"If you're sure." Mike said with a shrug. "Just let me know if you want to take a break."

"I will." Vincent assured him, walking off to the parts and service room. He hesitated for a moment before going in. What happened in the nightmare couldn't happen in real life.

Right?

Vincent grabbed the Spring suit and looked at it. The eyes were closed due to being in an offline state, but Vincent knew that they were a brilliant turquoise. He rubbed the fur on one of the ears. It was slightly warm, which was actually to be expected. The artificial skin on the animatronics did have a small amount of self-generating heat. It made the animatronics more lifelike, as well as making them better huggers.

All of the animatronics –with the obvious exception of BB- had soft fur. Or feathers, as it were. Vincent was certainly biased, but in his opinion Spring was the softest. It wasn't just fuzz, but it was far from coarse.

The man stood up and pulled the suit upright. It needed to be in an almost standing position for him to climb in. The legs were more rigid than one would expect, but when Vincent was in the suit he had no limitations on his movement. Apart, of course, from normal human limitations.

With a couple of clicks, the back of the torso of the suit came off. The latches were completely invisible to the casual observer, and even though Vincent knew what to look for, the only real reason he could find them was because he had to use them on a daily basis. He had gotten stuck in the suit more than once because he had forgotten where the latches were.

For most people, climbing into the suit would have required contortionist skills, but the suit was built to Vincent's specifications. The man's slender limbs could slide in through the arms and legs of the suit.

As Vincent got into the suit, his mind was filled with apprehension. What if the dream wasn't just unfounded fears? What if the locks actually did break? He got all the way into the suit and blinked. To his relief, when he opened his eyes it was Spring's eyelids that moved up. He wasn't locked in darkness this time.

After sealing the back of the suit, Vincent made his way into the main show area. Opening time was in a few minutes, and the animatronics were onstage and waiting. They always did one show at the start of the day, then once every hour. In between shows the animatronics would wander around and interact with the children.

It was strange how Vincent's worries had started to fade the instant he sealed the suit up. He found the presence of the suit reassuring. It wasn't really surprising though, seeing as he was spirit bound to the thing. Apparently it wasn't just a trick the Puppet pulled, although Vincent was almost certain that the Puppet had linked his soul to the suit after he got springtrapped. Either as punishment or in preparation for this.

"Vincent!"

Vincent realized that he had gotten himself turned around, and that he wound up in the Prize Corner. Looking around, he spotted the entity that had called his name. "Hello Puppet."

"I called your name three times. Are you alright?" Although its voice was always monotone, the Puppet's face openly displayed its concern.

"I'm good, just thinking." Vincent replied.

"What about?" the porcelain face of the marionette relaxed.

"Just how… well, awesome this suit is." Vincent said. "I mean, it's like I am the animatronic."

"Really?" The Puppet asked curiously. "That's interesting."

"How so? You were the one that explained how it works." Vincent was slightly confused.

"I expected it to stop after your soul stabilized within your body…" It stared into space, lost in thought. "Usually, the only thing that accepts a spirit bond is an object that is incompatible with the human soul. Like a piece of jewelry, or a weapon. It's really odd that it actually worked for the Spring suit at all. But then, machines are interesting…"

"Aaand… now you're speaking gibberish." Vincent shook his head, completely lost at this point. "Could I have that without all the geekspeak?"

"Very funny Vincent." It gave him an unamused glare. "Your link with Spring is unique. Extremely so."

"I wanted to ask you about that. Normally when someone dies, their soul goes to… wherever. Right?" The Puppet nodded in confirmation. "Okay, now why didn't that happen to my soul?"

"Magic users - such as you, me, and Jeremy – have the ability to linger in the world by choice. It's really the only reason Jeremy and the shadow brothers haven't moved on yet." The Puppet explained.

"Okay, but I didn't exactly want to stay in the world when I died. And what about the other kids? I'm pretty sure at least one of them wanted to move on when they died; and only one of them is a magic user." Vincent queried.

"Well, as you probably know, I have the gift of spirit control. In some places it would be called necromancy, but it's far more than raising and controlling the dead. I used this power to bind the spirits of the children to the animatronics, so as to give them a second chance at life. As for you…" It paused. "Promise you won't hate me?" it tensed up.

"I make no promises. But if you're implying that you bound me to my own corpse in order to punish me, all is forgiven." Vincent said, to the Puppet's evident relief.

 **Hmm…**

Vincent suddenly doubled over with a crippling headache. It was similar to when Franklin had activated his modification to the universal remote. But it certainly wasn't that device, Fritz had straight up destroyed it, so as to prevent a reoccurrence of Franklin's invasion of the pizzeria.

"Vincent?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine." Vincent waved the striped figure off. "Just a headache."

"Okay then…" The Puppet said, unsure.

"I'd better get to the show area. We open soon." Vincent stated, looking at the clock in the Prize Corner.

"Well, see you later Vincent." The Puppet said as it lowered into its box.

"See you Puppet." Vincent said with a wave.

 **Very interesting…**

Another headache hit Vincent, causing him to double over again, hands clutching his head. What in the world was causing these headaches? Was it left over from the nightmare last night? Come to that, what _had_ caused the nightmare? The Puppet said that it was caused by some outside force, but it obviously hadn't affected him before. Not in sixteen years.

He shook off his headache. The Spring suit had removed most of the stress and worry that the nightmare had caused, but this headache was still hurting. Hopefully it wouldn't impact his day too badly.

"Hello Vincent!~" Chica greeted from the show stage as he walked in. "Are you feeling better?"

"Much better. Thanks for asking!" Vincent answered.

 **Now this isn't right.**

"Ooh… less okay." Vincent said as another headache struck. "When did I develop migraines…?"

"Vincent? Are you alright?" Freddy asked worriedly.

"I thought I was, but apparently I'm not." The man said, shaking his head to try and get rid of the headache. He hadn't felt this bad since all those weeks ago, on Angela's birthday. He had since diagnosed the feeling as guilt, but this was different. It was a horrible headache, one that disrupted his ability to think to the extreme.

"Do you need anything?" Chica asked him. Apparently she felt a bit guilty for not getting him something for breakfast. But that wasn't her fault. If anything, it had been his.

"I'll be fine." He responded, then added under his breath. "I think."

 **Let's fix that.**

Vincent's vision began to spin and his headache intensified. He could feel his consciousness begin to slip away from him. It hurt, incredibly so. Not physically, but mentally. His mind felt like it was under incredible strain, however that worked. He began to stagger around, unable to keep his balance.

He felt as though his mind was warring against itself. One side of him was trying to force him into unconsciousness, while the other wanted to stay awake; and the latter was losing.

 **Wake up.**

The last thing Vincent heard before drifting into forced sleep was four separate voices calling his name.

* * *

 **There will be more bold text within the story itself. My authors notes will always be either at the top of the page, above a line break, or below the story, under a line break.**


	64. Back in Fazbear's Fright

Vincent cracked his eyelids open. What had happened…? One minute he was talking with the animatronics, the next he was lying on the ground. He could remember crippling headaches and being dizzy, along with a voice telling him to wake up. But that didn't make sense, he was already awake. Right?

He put his hand on his forehead to try and ward off the residual headache. What the hell had caused that headache? It had been downright debilitating, but he had never had headaches in his first life, and the Puppet had assured him that he was healthy since being resurrected.

Why was it so dark in here? It wasn't the darkness of a room with no light, but it had the shadowy gloom of an area with extremely poor lighting. It didn't look like any room of the pizzeria either. Vincent was acquainted with every single room of the pizzeria. Some more than others. This wasn't a room in the pizzeria.

But how could he have wound up out of the pizzeria? He was surrounded by the animatronics when he fell unconscious, there was no way someone could have taken him outside. Was there an extra room in the pizzeria? There could be, but that was far from likely. He had checked the measurements, and there was no space for an extra room in the pizzeria. Maybe under it, but the only stairwell was in the staff lounge. Maybe it branched off of Mike's room, but Mike wasn't a person to hide things.

Mike was also the sort of person to keep a room clean. This place was filthy. In fact, it reminded him of…

No. No. No no no no nononono NO!

Vincent's eyes shot all the way open. His suspicions and fears were all confirmed. He was back in Fazbear's Fright. There was the Puppet mask on the wall, the Chica head with the lightbulb in it, and even all of the present boxes.

He scrambled to his feet, finding it far more difficult than usual. It was as if he gained a hundred extra pounds in clothing, but also gained enough strength to wear it like it was nothing. He felt stiff, as though he hadn't moved in a long time.

Vincent stumbled down the hallway, using his arms to keep himself upright. If he was in Fazbear's Fright, then he should get out of this place. He made his way through the halls, looking at the decrepit attractions. The place seemed to be fine, as if the fire had never happened. Maybe Vincent's memory was flawed, but he was certain that the building had burned down.

After turning a corner and nearly collapsing due to his uncoordinated walking, he spotted the office. There was the large window that the night guard was supposed to use to keep an eye on the place. He walked past the window towards the doorway. The emergency exit was right there, and it shouldn't be locked.

With a heavy push, the door flew open. Vincent stepped forward, only to find that he couldn't. His legs refused to move him forward. He was stuck in this crappy horror attraction, and that was not fun.

"Goddammit…" He muttered, then paused. That sounded like his voice, but at the same time it was profoundly different. Vincent knew that there was something big he had missed, but he couldn't quite place it.

He trudged through the hallway again, stopping to look in the window. There wasn't anyone there, but…

Wait.

Vincent stepped close to the window and looked at his reflection in horror. His face was locked in a permanent grin, with large off-white teeth. There were large gashes in what looked like his skin, along with wires poking out of holes in his body. His eyes were large and bulbous, with glowing grey irises and pupils. On top of his head were two rabbit ears, the right one broken off halfway.

He was Springtrap again.

Letting off a cry of anguish, the decaying rabbit slammed both his fists into the window. Now that he wasn't focusing on escape, it was obvious that he was Springtrap. His hands were metal with bits of decaying suit on them. His torso was basically a hollow shell with rotted entrails and metal bones in it. It was more or less miraculous that he could even move, what with all the dried blood and rust on the motors. His legs were in an even worse condition, being exposed metal from the knees down. The rusted joints looked like they would fall apart to someone blowing on them.

Worst of all, he was alone again.

With an effort, he managed to access the magic he knew he had. The Puppet had the rare gift of spirit control, but so did Vincent. His magic was permanently weakened after the time when he turned the phantoms corporeal, but he had a few tricks up his sleeves that not even the Puppet knew about. One of them was a magical siphon.

That was the real reason Fredbear hadn't been able to hold him very long. The yellow bear was a magical powerhouse, able to sustain telekinesis and teleportation for extensive periods of time. Even with the fact that magic users resisted magic like soap resisted grips, Fredbear could have held Springtrap against the wall for hours. The yellow bear's biggest, and likely only, weakness with regards to magic was his lack of finesse and versatility. He had three different kinds of magic that he used – telekinesis, teleportation, and telepathy – and while he could do all three to extreme degrees, he only did these kinds of magic.

Springtrap – not Vincent, the man refused to think of himself as the same entity as the insane zombie machine – had a very interesting kind of magic. While Vincent acted like he didn't understand the Puppet's lectures on magic, he listened to every little bit of information. The information that the Puppet shared often helped to explain the things that Vincent had noticed when he was dead. The biggest bit of info was the fact that magic users were slippery targets when it came to other magic.

This fit in exactly with the magic that Springtrap had utilized. Necromancy, shadow manipulation, hallucinations, and invisibility. Coupled with the magic siphon and the fact that, like the three ghosts and the Puppet, he could use magic of all kinds, he was incredibly dangerous. It was just as well he had burned himself out by performing such a feat of magic, otherwise the rotted monstrosity known as Springtrap would have been able to simply kill Mike Schmidt.

Thus it was surprising to Vincent that he had far more magic built up than should have been possible. It was as if he hadn't wasted his energy on performing the impossible. With a flick of his wrists and a moment's concentration, he conjured up six spirits. These shades weren't the same as the phantoms, being mere echoes of their presence. In fact, two of the phantoms weren't even under his control in the first place, and one of those two had come in person.

It was weird how easily magic came to him. He barely knew what he was doing, and yet he managed to bring six shades into existence. The eyes of these shades were grey rings in black voids, lacking the white dot in the middle that showed the presence of a spirit.

Vincent sighed. "You're all just a bunch of mindless shades, aren't you…?"

There was no response, all of the grimy looking phantoms standing stationary.

"Goddammit…" The rabbit said sadly, dismissing the shades. They melted back into the shadows as if they had never existed in the first place. "I'm alone. Again."

"Not entirely."

The decaying rabbit whirled around to see another animatronic. This one was the same height as he was, not counting ears. It was a golden yellow color, and clean too. The newcomer seemed to be a bear, with a dark blue bowtie and hat. While its eyes were voids, they had the white dots that Vincent had learned to look for.

"Fredbear!" The undead rabbit exclaimed happily. "I thought I was alone again."

"Call me Goldie. I haven't been Fredbear in years." The yellow bear said with laughter in its voice.

"Goldie, do you have any idea why I'm back here again?" Vincent asked, sure that this creature at least was benevolent.

"Straight to the point as always. The answer is complicated." Goldie replied.

"Explain it anyway." Vincent said. "I'm certain I've got time."

"This is reality, but not the one you came from. Something has moved your mind here from your home. This reality has several notable differences form yours. I don't know where you came from or how your home reality is, but I can tell you don't belong here." Goldie explained.

"So… how did this place survive the fire? And what about Mike? He's supposed to be the night guard." Vincent asked.

"There was no fire in this building, I'm assuming that there was in your reality." The bear paused. "Mike Schmidt isn't a name I recognize, I'm sorry."

"So…" Vincent started, then hesitated. "How do I get home?"

The golden bear laughed. "That's quite simple, really."

 _Wake up._

* * *

 **There are some really strange things happening with Vincent's mind. Makes me feel bad for the guy.**


	65. Darkness in the Night

"Thank god, he's awake."

Vincent stirred and opened his eyes. That sounded like the Puppet. In any case, there was only one person he knew who would say he was awake before he even knew that he was.

"Good morning…" The pale man muttered. "How long was I out…?"

"It's far from morning. We're already past closing time." The Puppet said worriedly. "What happened?"

"I… there was a voice in my head. I can't remember exactly what it said, but it caused my headaches. Then it knocked me out." He sat up and rubbed his temples. "Am I going insane?"

 _No_

"I don't think so. If you were going insane then this voice wouldn't be able to affect your consciousness or give you pain." The masked figure grabbed Vincent's chin and jerked the man's head so that he was looking into the Puppet's eyes. "But there is something external within your mind. Whatever it is, this supernatural entity is powerful."

"So is this 'supernatural entity' the source of my nightmares?" Vincent asked, wondering for a fraction of a second why his head felt fuzzy. After a moment of thought, he realized that he was still wearing the Spring suit. It didn't affect him negatively, in fact he would never have noticed if it weren't for chance.

"Nightmare _s_? More than one?" The Puppet queried.

"Yeah, the one last night, and now another one today." Vincent began to undo the latches on the suit.

"Interesting. That's not an ability most spirits have…" The slender marionette mused. "Perhaps…" It paused in thought. "Do you still have the amulet?"

"Of course. Why?" The pale man asked as he climbed out of the suit.

"Perhaps if you wore it, you could block out the spirit that has been affecting you." The Puppet made its way to the door.

"Where are you going?" Vincent sealed up the back of the suit again.

"Letting Mike know that you're awake. He has been worried for your welfare." The spirit said as it left the room.

Vincent opened the drawer in the bedside table. Inside, along with a book that he would never admit he had 'borrowed' from Theodore, was the amulet. It wasn't flashy or special looking, but Vincent could literally feel the power resonating from it.

Made out of a dark wood, the polished tablet had several runes inscribed on it. The runes were carved into the surface of the wood, and then colored with rare materials that – apparently – made the wearer immune to magic. To a magic user, the effects were obvious. The amulet radiated a protective energy that was almost tangible.

 **So you not only escape, but you try and defend yourself. Cute.**

Vincent shook his head. He heard something that wasn't real, but he couldn't understand what it was saying.

"What are you?" The man whispered, not expecting an answer.

 **I am the darkness in the night.**

To Vincent's surprise, the entity that was haunting him answered. Not only that, but it was understandable. "What do you want from me?"

 **Wouldn't you like to know.**

With that, the voice vanished, leaving Vincent wondering what exactly that thing was. The voice hadn't had any tone or definable features, and Vincent knew he hadn't been hearing with his ears. It had been like a message had arrived in his brain from somewhere else.

He shook his head and went back to what he was doing. The amulet should help against this strange creature that was haunting him. As he slipped it on, he felt like something was cut off. Like a string that he had been holding snapped.

It was probably fortunate that the amulet didn't have any adverse effects on him. Some things that should have had no effect on him did. A good example would be the salt circle trick he tried. That had killed him, apparently because of the fact that his soul wasn't technically alive.

There was the sound of someone lightly knocking on the doorframe. Vincent looked up to see Mike standing in the doorway of his room.

"Hey Vince, how're you feeling?" the green eyed man asked.

"A lot better now, thanks." Vincent grabbed the amulet he was now wearing and rubbed it between his fingers. "Hopefully this prevents any recurrences."

"You really had me worried Vincent. Do you know what caused that?" Mike queried. "The Puppet said that you're in perfect condition, physically at least."

"Some… thing. It was in my head. With luck, the amulet should help ward it off." Vincent said, standing up from his bed. "What happened while I was out?"

"Not much, it was a fairly uneventful day. The Puppet brought you to your room and stayed to watch over you. I ran the Prize Corner for the day, using the excuse of the Puppet being out of order." Mike informed him. "Now we're playing Mario Kart. Wanna join?"

"We really should hire more people. You, Percy, and Fritz are good, but seriously, we need to have enough employees to operate safely." Vincent mused.

"True. But that's what the five nights strategy is for. The best employees will be the ones who know about the animatronics. Not to mention the fact that, by the end of their night shifts, they should have dispersed any fear of the animatronics, and especially the Puppet." Mike stated. "We'll certainly pay them well if they do a good job."

"Makes sense." Vincent agreed, "I'll join you in Mario Kart."

Mike shook his head. "I will never figure out how thoughts travel through your brain." He waved at Vincent. "C'mon, I'm pretty sure Fritz is getting impatient."

"Question: does the Puppet ever get bored?" Vincent asked as the two made their way up the staircase.

"Not that I've seen. The thing just seems to have a bottomless well of patience." Mike shrugged. "Up until the point where you fail to understand what it says. That's about the only thing that gets on its nerves."

The duo made their way up to the staff lounge. Fritz was heatedly pressing the buttons on his controller as the Puppet calmly took the lead. Fritz looked to the side at the two newcomers, then looked back at the screen with a cry of rage. "Come on! How do you always land the green shells?!"

"Patience, Mister Smith." The haunted puppet replied. "Patience, and slight precognition."

"Of course, the damn doll has the ability to see the future! Why am I not surprised!" Fritz threw down the controller as the race came to a conclusion. "No wonder you win every game!"

"You do realize that the Puppet doesn't actually have precognition, right?" Mike said with a grin.

"I know, but he's still able to tell exactly what's going to happen." Fritz sulked.

"Strategy is a good friend of mine Fritz." The Puppet stated.

"And mind reading…" Fritz muttered. "C'mon you two, maybe we can beat this slenderman reject."

"Telepathy is Goldie's specialty, not mine." The Puppet said, selecting its character.

Vincent paused. "You mean Fredbear, right?" He knew that Mike often called Fredbear Goldie, but the Puppet could have gotten into his mind…

"Yes. I've taken to calling him Goldie. Something I picked up from the other spirits." It paused. "I should probably stop, now that he's being called Fredbear again."

But no, the Puppet didn't do much magic that affected the mind. It could do so, but it wasn't exactly good at such things. "Yeah, probably." Something out of the ordinary had managed to enter his nightmare and drag him out. Whatever it was, it certainly knew about Fredbear's Family Diner, and how most of the staff of Fazbear Entertainment had taken to calling the mascot of the place Golden Freddy.

He picked up a controller. Mike selected Mario as his racer, Fritz continued on with Toad, for some reason, and the Puppet was playing as Luigi. Vincent looked through the characters then shrugged, picking Bowser. He had no idea how each character played, but Bowser looked cool.

Five minutes later, he was glad with his choice.

The other three had all chosen light characters, meaning that Vincent could bash them away from item boxes, resulting in him obtaining the lead. It was only for a little while, however. The Puppet managed to snipe him with three consecutive green shells, knocking him back into last place. With a lucky item box, he grabbed a blue shell, forcing the Puppet into third and giving the other two first and second. Then he hit the jackpot.

"Bullet BIILL!" He exclaimed, rocketing past the other racers and crossing the finish line, the Puppet close behind. Somehow, it always managed to wind up either in first, or just behind first.

"Looks like the shadows can't screw up my luck in this game." Vincent said triumphantly.

"Challenge accepted." A new voice said from behind him. Vincent turned his head to see Sean floating there, a smug look on his face.

"Oh hell no. You are NOT hacking Mario Kart." Fritz stated flatly.

"Oh hell yeah." Sean retorted with a grin. The ghost floated across the room and stuck his hand into the game console. "Let's see how bad we can make your items."

"Welp, I'm getting only coins this race. Wish me luck." Vincent said unhappily.

The race was an interesting one. As Vincent predicted, he only got coins. They had no functional effect on the game, meaning that while the others got things like banana peels and shells in order to knock each other out, he had to rely purely on his character weight.

The interesting part was that Vincent won.

He managed to get to first normally, dodging shells and peels, but once he got there, things got strange. Any time another racer threw a shell at him, it was hit by a rapidly ricocheting green shell. Fritz nearly got him once, but a bobomb from Mike knocked the programmer out of the game. Not once was Vincent in danger of losing his position at first place.

All in all, it was a pretty fun time.

* * *

 **I know that the last chapter was pretty boring, but it contained some needed exposition. In this chapter, we have a mini conversation between the mysterious entity that is attacking Vincent, and the gang plays some Mario Kart.**

 **This should be obvious, but I own literally nothing in this fanfiction apart from my interpretation of the characters, and the small handful of OCs that are in previous chapters.**


	66. Is This All Real?

_Beep beep beep beep._

Vincent groaned and rolled over, ignoring the alarm clock. He could sleep for a little while longer, right? After all, there wasn't anything special today, was there?

 _Beep beep bee- thump._

The man raised his hand from the alarm clock and put it over his eyes. God… why did he have to get up today? He was so tired…

Wait, how?

In the blink of an eye, Vincent removed his hand from his face. This wasn't his room. He had never been here before. How was this possible?

He suddenly realized that there were large gaps in his memory. What was he doing yesterday? Who was Mike Schmidt, and why was he so important? And why did he feel like something was off?

Vincent quickly stood up from the bed. Why did he feel like something was missing? He knew, _knew_ , he couldn't possibly be tired after sleeping for a couple hours, but what was the reason he knew this? It was illogical, and he couldn't remember any examples of it happening.

There was the sound of someone walking down the hallway, then someone knocked on the door. "Come in."

The pale man's eyes widened in shock as none other than Marcus walked into the room. "Morning Vince."

Vincent was speechless. The last time he had seen Marcus, his younger brother had hated him. Now here he was, greeting him like this happened every day.

"Is something wrong Vince?" the younger brother asked worriedly. "You look like you've seen a ghost, and at your age that wouldn't be a good thing."

Now that Marcus mentioned it, it did seem like time had passed. A lot of time, in fact. Marcus looked to be in his mid-forties, which would place Vincent at around fifty. No wonder he was tired then, he was fifty years old. Vincent stepped forwards and pulled his brother in for a hug.

"Woah, is something wrong Vince?" Marcus asked, returning the hug.

"I thought I had lost you." The older brother replied, his voice wavering.

"You have another nightmare?" The blue eyed younger man queried sympathetically.

"Another nightmare…?" Vincent muttered. He released his brother and stepped back. "What do you mean?"

"Right, I forgot you have memory issues." Marcus scratched the back of his head. "Every few weeks you relapse. Your memory leaves you, and the only things you can remember are sixteen years ago, and bits and pieces of whatever nightmare you woke up from."

"What happened sixteen years ago…? I remember the museum heist and…" Vincent stopped. "You… you left. I thought you hated me…"

"That's probably left over from your nightmare." Marcus replied. "After the museum heist was a success, we came home to celebrate."

"So Franklin didn't sell me out to the cops, and you went with us?" The pale man was confused. "How long were you a part of Tony's gang?"

"I've been in the 'gentleman's club' almost as long as you have." Marcus grinned. "After all, how many people can honestly say they've been trained in combat by the one and only Vincent Tollini?"

"If my faulty memory is correct, only you and Franklin." Vincent said, returning the grin. "What's been happening in the interim?"

"Well, you broke literally every record in the book. One hundred and ten confirmed kills, and never once caught by the cops."

That made Vincent feel sick inside, but he didn't show it on the outside. One hundred and ten kills? How many people did he slaughter? And now Marcus was following in his murderous footsteps? This couldn't be real, could it?

"So what's the plan for today?" Vincent asked.

"Well, to finish off your illustrious career, we're going to make one final kill. Remember Freddy Fazbear's Pizza?" Vincent nodded in confirmation, and Marcus continued. "Well, after you and Franklin shut it down sixteen years ago, some rich guy bought out the rights to the restaurant and all of the animatronics. He hired the famous Fritz Smith to upgrade the things, and now they're basically his bodyguards. Tony, the sentimental old fool, wanted to give you a job that was symbolic, so he's sending you, me, and Franklin to take out the new owner of Freddy Fazbear's."

Vincent knew that there was a problem with this, but he couldn't place it for the life of him. He didn't want to do it, but he had no idea why the idea of killing the owner of the franchise he hated most was repelling to him.

"Alright, what approach are we taking?" The pale man asked, looking around his room. It was sparse, which was normal for him.

"Franklin has a device that he says should be able to jam the animatronics for a couple seconds per use. The hope is that we can sneak past them and get to the owner. Once there, we can finish him off." Marcus informed. "I'll let you have the honors."

"Thanks." Vincent said, nodding. "Now then, let's get ready."

* * *

Marcus, Vincent, and Franklin were outside the pizzeria. It was a large, modern looking building, with glass doors out front. The logo had the head of a brown bear, the famous Freddy Fazbear himself.

"Alright, here we go." Vincent muttered, picking the lock on the back door. "Just keep the robots distracted, I'll take out the manager."

"Got it." Franklin replied, pulling something out of his pocket. It looked like a remote controller, but Vincent knew better. That thing could force someone unconscious from fifty feet away.

As the trio entered the building, Vincent knew that there was something off. He could tell easily that Marcus had the same feeling, but he didn't know what exactly this was about.

 _"Magic users can see spirits and detect magic" ? Informed him._

Vincent shook his head. Marcus had said something about memory issues, right? So why would he remember someone telling him about magic? Magic was a fairy tale thing, it wasn't real. The voice sounded like it should mean something, but its emotionless monotone didn't sound familiar.

The three continued through the hallway. The map of the place showed that the manager's office was at the end of this stretch, with luck the owner would be there.

Unfortunately, the owner wasn't in the office, but someone else was.

Or… some _thing_ else.

It was a towering figure, with brown fur all over and electric blue eyes in its face. On top of its head was a black top hat, with a similarly colored bowtie on its neck.

Freddy Fazbear was here to greet them.

Quick as lightning, Franklin snapped his remote up at it and pressed the signal button, stunning the massive bear. Marcus closed the distance to it and grabbed the sides of its head, utilizing his massive frame to twist the bear's head off of its torso. With a snap, the neck joint broke, and Marcus dropped the head on the ground.

"Wrong area. Where else could he be?" Marcus muttered.

 _? sighed. "Follow me."_

 _? led Vincent to a door that proclaimed "Staff Only" and went inside. There was a staff lounge here, featuring a television, several wall outlets, a refrigerator, and a microwave, among other things. In the back left corner of the room was a staircase that led downwards. Vincent followed ? down the staircase to see a short hallway with four doors leading out of it. One door is marked '?' one marked '?' one marked '?', and the last unmarked. At the other end of the hallway was a ramp that curved back upwards into the staff lounge. ? went to the unmarked door and opened it, showing Vincent the inside._

"Staff lounge." Vincent said, heading off through the building. He didn't know why he had this memory, as it was incongruous with the rest of his life now, but it seemed to have come in handy.

Franklin and Marcus went off in another direction, while Vincent proceeded to the staff lounge. He was as stealthy as he could be, but he was unfortunately spotted by another animatronic.

This one was a fox, with yellow eyes and white fur. On the tips of its ears and tail, the fur was a bright pink color. For some reason, this animatronic was able to climb on the ceiling, using its claws to keep from falling to the ground.

With a blink, the eyes of the fox vanished, leaving black voids in its eye sockets. It was incredibly unsettling, but it didn't stop Vincent. As soon as he spotted the fox, Vincent pulled his special little device out of his pocket. It was combination lock pick, wrench, screwdriver, and razor blade. With luck, it would make short work of this animatronic.

The fox dropped down on top of him, trying to crush him with the initial drop. Vincent ducked out of the way and brought his tool down on the back of its neck, straight into a wire cluster. The animatronic lost power to its torso, and Vincent drew back to finish it off.

He hesitated, then just continued onwards to the staff lounge. The animatronic wouldn't be able to hinder him anymore.

Vincent pushed open the door to the staff lounge. He proceeded down the ramp in the back right corner of the room. The stairs would be faster, but he wasn't certain he could stay stealthy. Growing older had reduced his confidence in his abilities.

There were four doors down here, three of which were marked with names. Vincent guessed they were living quarters, which would explain the lack of people up in the main building. Percy, Fritz, and Mike. Vincent knew Percy Giles, the man had been his coworker in the time he had been an employee at Freddy Fazbear's. The man was clever and intelligent, but not a leader. Fritz had been hired by whoever owned the place, which left Mike as the last possible person to be the owner.

The assassin pushed open the door to see a broad-shouldered man sitting at a desk and working. The man didn't even notice the door opening, he was so engrossed in his work. Vincent crept up behind the man and drew a knife from somewhere on his person. He raised his arm and was about to strike when Mike turned his head and gasped in shock.

He couldn't kill this man. He couldn't. Mike Schmidt was the only reason Vincent was even alive. Mike had shown him nothing but kindness, it would be wrong to stab him in the back.

"Dammit Vince, are you going senile?" Marcus said from behind him.

Vincent whirled around and deflected a thrown knife, saving Mike's life. Marcus was almost as fast as he was, and a hell of a lot stronger too.

A tall figure with a white face and purple tearstains appeared behind Marcus. The eyes nothing but pinpricks of light. It looked at Vincent, and shook its head.

"Puppet…" Vincent muttered, remembering everything. He shook his head. "This isn't real."

 **NO!**

Vincent brought the knife down.

Through his own heart.

 **How? What keeps you anchored? What keeps bringing you back? You're wearing the amulet, nothing can get in!**

The world froze.

"Well, if nothing can get in, how are you here?" The pale man asked, his hair draining to white and his body returning to its actual age.

 **Close all the doors you want Vincent, I'm already in your head.**

The human shrugged. "Figured that much." He stood up, pulling the knife out of his chest. "So then, give up yet?"

 **I may not be able to drive you to insanity, but you will be punished for your insolence.**

* * *

Vincent swung his knife wildly, catching the child across the face and slicing their throat. As he watched, the slashed eyes of the child drained of both life and color, leaving them entirely colorless.

As he slowly backed away, the child's eyes bled out into their tearstains, and their face grew paler. The child's body grew taller and thinner, eventually ending in the child being a towering figure with colorless eyes and purple tearstains on its white face.

It reached towards him with its spiderlike fingers, seeking to strangle the life out of him…

 _Wake up_

* * *

Vincent walked up to the children. He was wearing the Spring Bonnie suit, so as to not be recognized.

"Hey kids, how's the party going?" He asked in a goofy voice.

"Good!" The children chorused.

"Who here likes Freddy Fazbear?" He queried. All five children raised their hands. "Does anyone want to meet his brother? He's very shy, but I can get you to meet him!"

"I wanna go!" the youngest child said. His older brother stood up to stand next to him. "I'll go too."

"Well come on kids!" Vincent said. "Follow me!"

 _Wake up_

* * *

Vincent approached a second group of children. The spring suits weren't available this time, and the safe room wasn't built into this location, but that should be fine. The parts and service room should work just as well.

He walked up to the kids. "Hey guys, having fun?"

Four of the kids were older than ten, but one of them, the birthday boy, was five. The five year-old grinned. "Yeah! This place is awesome, I wanna stay here forever!"

 _Poor kid doesn't realize that he will stay here forever._ Vincent thought to himself. Out loud, he said "There are some other animatronics that I want to show you. Wanna see?"

"Yes!" The kid said excitedly.

"Well, what're you waiting for? Come on!"

 _Wake up_

* * *

"Hey there pretty lady, what're you doing out here?"

The lady in question looked up from her map. She seemed to be lost, as if she hadn't gone around the city much. She was quite beautiful, with flowing black hair and intelligent golden eyes. She wore glasses, but that didn't really detract from her appearance. She grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, I'm a bit lost, can you help me?"

"Of course, come on." The man said. He was a thuggish sort, and Vincent hated him. "Just this way miss."

As the two entered the alley, Vincent dropped down from his vantage point on the rooftop. He landed lightly and silently directly behind the woman. With a flash of steel, he had his knife to her neck and had ripped her phone out of her hand. "That won't be necessary."

"Good job Vinny, now hold her still." The thug said with an evil grin.

"Don't call me Vinny." The assassin muttered angrily. "Alright miss, you're going to give us what we want, and nobody's going to get hurt."

"Yeah, and first we want a little fun." The thug guffawed. He stepped closer, obviously preparing to commit a deed that Vincent had never wanted to have anything to do with.

As the thug reached towards the woman, Vincent slid his knife across her throat, muttering "I'm sorry." He wasn't about to let anyone be defiled for this thug's pleasure.

"Aww c'mon Vinny, you didn't have to do that!" The thug whined. "I just wanted a little pleasure."

"You're a miserable waste of human existence." Vincent said, lowering the body to the ground and spitting on the man's shoes. With a flash of metal, he sliced the thug's cheek. "Damn you. Better she die than you ruin her life." He sliced again, slicing through the man's tendons on his arm, making his right arm useless. "Now screw off before I kill you too."

Vincent knelt down to the woman's body. "I'm so, so sorry…"

 _Wake up_


	67. Bad Timing

"Every time I lay down, I swear to god…" Vincent groaned as he woke up. Let's see what had been the nightmare this time…?

He froze, then just removed the amulet. It hadn't helped him anyway. The thing seemed to only weaken whatever countermeasures that the Puppet had put in place. The strange voice had said something about an 'anchor', however. Based purely off of context, that meant that something else was keeping him from going insane.

Vincent thought about what he had been shown. He recognized the first three of the last scenes of his nightmare. Those had been when he murdered the children. The first scene, with the puppet, had most likely been an attempt to scare him. It hadn't worked though, it had merely reduced the reality of the scene. The middle two scenes had been memories that had replayed endlessly in his mind, and he loathed thinking about it.

The last scene had been the odd one out. The first three had been events that he felt guilty about. But while he also felt guilty about the last scene, he didn't feel any worse about it than his other murders. He had never wanted to do them, but he had little choice. Or at least, at the time, he had thought he had no choice, in retrospect he knew that there was always another option.

But what about the last scene was supposed to haunt him? He had had little choice, at least in his mind. He needed the money that the woman had, but he wasn't about to defile her. There was no way he could have fought off the thug without letting the woman go. In addition, that was far from the guiltiest he had felt about a decision. So what was so important?

Then it hit him. Hadn't Mike said something about his girlfriend being killed in an alley? He had also said that Hope was beautiful, but hid behind her glasses. Had he been the one who murdered Hope?

Suddenly, Vincent's triumph at outsmarting his mysterious attacker faded. He had murdered the one woman that Mike had ever loved. He hadn't known at the time, but now he felt horrible. His best friend, or at least best human friend, was alone because of him. Vincent covered his face with his hands. The horrible things he had done finally hit him as hard as they should have. His apathy had been burned away by his resurrection, and now his newfound emotional weakness was being assaulted.

"I'm a monster…" Vincent muttered, standing up from his bed. "I don't deserve what I've been given…"

 _You are so close to redemption_

The man looked around. There was a similar feeling to when his haunting foe spoke, but this was far more benevolent. It also felt like it belonged, as opposed to the feeling of an alien entity invading his mind.

"Who are you?" Vincent asked the friendly voice. It didn't respond. "Never mind." The man said with a sigh.

Vincent looked around the room and realized that Spring was still sitting on the ground in the corner of the room. The man walked over to it and rested his hand on the side of the suit's face. It brought him comfort, even if he didn't know why or how. Simply being in contact with Spring made him feel better.

He stood up and walked into the hallway. Same as always, really. Vincent didn't know why he expected it to be any different. He paused for a moment, then went back into his bedroom.

"Can't leave you behind." He muttered, kneeling down to pick up the Spring suit. With a heave, he lifted it over his shoulder and left his room again. He would try to make up for not being able to perform yesterday.

"Sean, that's quite possibly the worst idea I've ever heard." Shane's voice came from the staff lounge. Apparently he didn't approve of something Sean had said.

"Oh c'mon! It's not that bad! It'll be hilarious!" Came the upset response. "After all, it's not every day we get the opportunity to pull a prank like that!"

"Okay, maybe it'll be funny, but we need to wait on it. After closing time, sort of thing." Shane replied.

"Yes!"

Vincent shook his head, wondering who the brothers would be pranking. Whatever they had in mind, it was certainly going to be big. It was rare that Shane shot down an idea, but when he did, it was something big. Vincent just hoped that he wasn't the unfortunate soul they were targeting.

When Vincent entered the staff lounge, the brothers were gone. It probably didn't matter anyway. The duo never did anything that could potentially hurt someone. Well, permanently, anyway. They had hit him with a fireball once, and while it had tingled, it wasn't permanent. It had made the Puppet irritated, since it needed to heal the man from the wrecked state he had been put into.

The man shrugged. Whatever they were up to, he didn't need to worry about it.

* * *

At the end of the day, Vincent felt pretty good.

The strange entity hadn't attacked him today, thank God for that. It would have only added to the compounding issues of the day. While none of them were particularly bad, the combination of routine problems added up to make everyone's day just a little more stressful.

It started with Chica running out of supplies due to an unexpected increase in popularity. She spent most of her time that day in the kitchen, instead of onstage. Fritz had offered before to make an automatic pizza maker, but the chicken had turned it down because she liked to make the pizza herself.

Chica had needed to cook more pizza than they had supplies for. Even though she spent most of the nights to prep food for the day, the backup pizza ran out. Mike had needed to rush out and grab some more supplies in order to keep from running out.

The next problem was a bunch of teenagers in the game area. They forced Vincent to keep a constant eye on them in order to keep them from destroying something. At first things were normal, but then one of the teens started to hit the token machine in an order that Vincent recognized. The man had needed to get there before they cheated any tokens out of the device.

However, that wasn't the biggest problem. The teens had backed off once Vincent noticed that they were trying to get the machine to glitch, but they didn't stop messing with the arcade machines. One of them started to fiddle around with the latches on the back of an arcade machine. Vincent had basically kicked them out at that point. Tampering with the arcade machines was a very easy way to get yourself booted out of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

There was a whole group of kids that were afraid of the animatronics, which gave Billy a lot of trouble. In addition to handing out balloons, the childlike animatronic could very easily pass for a normal human. BB often used his appearance in order to help children with a fear of the larger robots, gaining their trust and then introducing the child to either the Puppet or Vix, since those two were the least imposing of the big animatronics. With ten children that were afraid of the animatronics, BB wasn't able to get the one-on-one time needed to gain their trust.

While all of these happened on a fairly common basis, once or twice a week really, having all of these happen on the same day was disastrous. The icing on the cake, or rather, the bombshell in the chaos, was the fact that the Prize Corner actually ran out of prizes.

The Puppet might have the ability to conjure objects from other places, but it couldn't simply create prizes out of midair. When the Prize Corner ran out of prizes, it was a major problem. It wasn't very easy to order new prizes, and making them took time. The Puppet may have been a master at sewing and the creation of plushies, but even then it took a while to make even the simplest toys. Not to mention the fact that the plastic toys had to be ordered from toy companies.

It was probably fortunate that Vincent had been able to calm down the kids that had a phobia of the animatronics. Spring was a less intimidating figure, and with Vincent's knowledge of how to keep the kids happy, he was able to entertain them. It's hard to be scared of something you're laughing at, Vincent knew this for a fact. That was why Vincent had developed the ability to make almost anyone laugh.

Now that the day was over, however, things should be better. Calmer, certainly. Less chaotic.

Vincent went downstairs from the staff lounge to put Spring in his room. He just felt safer with the yellow rabbit nearby, and anything that helped would hopefully ward off nightmares.

After dropping Spring off in his room, Vincent went back upstairs to the staff lounge.

As he came up the stairs, he heard the sound of two voices whispering.

"Now!"

He was hit by the spell that the two shadow brothers had been preparing all day.

It was certainly something unique.

* * *

 **So, no author's note last time because it would ruin the atmosphere. Can't put an author's note in right when something sad and/or terrifying happens. That ruins the immersion.**

 **About last chapter: Vincent stabbed himself because it was the only way out that didn't involve killing someone he loved. Might not have been clear on that front. It certainly made his (not so) mysterious attacker angry.**

 **This chapter is mostly exposition. We learn that Hope was the one that Vincent remembered killing in an alley last chapter. Also, the brothers chose the single worst time to cast this particular spell. I'll let you know exactly what spell it was next chapter.**


	68. Child's Play

"What did you DO!?"

Mike looked up from his desk and frowned. That sounded like Vincent, but different. What exactly caused him to scream like that?

The green eyed man shook his head. There was a wave of what he recognized as powerful magic passing through the building, but he didn't think that the Puppet was supposed to be casting any big spells today. It would have told him if it was going to do so.

Goldie didn't exactly have transmittable magic. If he used a major spell, it would either be telepathy or teleportation, and both of those didn't have a notable effect except on the target. Telekinesis didn't really seem to have any additional effects, apart from the movement of objects.

Jeremy was probably resting again. The poor guy hated the normal form that he had as a ghost, and used most of his energy to maintain his human form. He also refused to use magic much, ever since he accidentally made it so that the pizzeria received its internet from the future. Jeremy had apologized profusely, but Mike had made the most of knowing what was going to happen.

That left the shadow brothers. Together, they could perform greater feats of magic than even the Puppet. It was probably just a big prank though. The duo could reverse whatever magic they did. Right?

Or… not. That had been a bigger pulse of energy than the time when the Puppet had healed Vincent's soul. The Puppet had said that it felt drained afterwards, and it had retired to its box for the next several days. Did that mean that the shadow brothers had used more energy than they could reverse?

Mike stood up and made his way towards the staff lounge, taking an indirect route that stopped at the Prize Corner. He walked over to the Puppet's box and tapped on the lid. The Puppet had said that it didn't want to be disturbed, as it needed to make more plush toys for the next day, but this was important. If the brothers had managed to cast a spell of that magnitude…

"Yes?" came the answering voice from within the box.

"There's a problem Puppet." Mike explained. "Did you feel that energy pulse earlier?"

"…" The Puppet was silent for a few moments. "My box is insulated against magic. What pulse of energy?"

That was news to Mike. The Puppet had never said anything about its box being magically insulated. Although it did make sense, seeing as he had never detected any magic while the Puppet made toys. He disregarded it as irrelevant right now. "A couple minutes ago, a massive pulse of magical energy permeated the building. It was bigger than the one that pulsed when you repaired Vincent's soul. I'm worried that the shadow brothers might have pulled a trick they can't fix."

The lid of the box opened and the Puppet's porcelain face peeked over the edge. "How powerful did you say?" Its eyes were wide with worry.

"More powerful than anything else that I've seen, the sole exception being when Springtrap pulled his little stunt." Mike explained.

This brought the Puppet out of its box. "Let's go."

"Turn me back NOW!" a high pitched voice came from the staff lounge. It was certainly Vincent, but higher pitched than usual.

The two looked at each other, then rushed to the staff lounge. Mike shoved the door open and barged into the room, looking around. What he saw surprised him.

Shane and Sean were laughing exhaustedly, as if they found something unbelievably funny, but they were too tired to laugh properly. As Mike watched, Sean flickered once, then stabilized.

"You two are morons." The Puppet said, shaking its head. "Go sleep. You're going to fade out if you try to stay active."

"But it's-" Shane wheezed. "So funny!"

That was when Mike spotted the victim of their prank.

Vincent did not look happy.

He also looked to be about five.

"Oh… my… god." Mike muttered in disbelief. "Puppet… they made Vincent a little kid."

The Puppet looked at the child. "Shane. Sean. You just did the impossible." It stated flatly, turning a glare at the two ghosts. "Revert the spell."

Shane started to calm down, flickering every few seconds. "We can't." He said, trying to calm himself down.

"What do you mean you can't? You cast the spell, you should be able to remove it." The Puppet crossed its arms.

"We literally can't. The spell has a timer, but not an off switch." Shane said, scratching the back of his head. "And, uh…" he looked down at his flickering form. "We don't have enough energy to cast the counterspell."

"Yeah, that used a lot more energy than expected." Sean said, calming down.

"How old are you two again?" Mike asked, exasperated.

"Twenty-six." Shane answered.

"Twenty-three." Sean added on.

"And they both have a mental age of seven." The Puppet said, rolling its eyes.

Through all of this, Vincent was just sitting against the wall and sulking. He looked up at the two shadows that had turned him into a little kid. "So I'm stuck like this for how long?"

"One month." Shane assured him.

"We have no idea!" Sean exclaimed.

All of the others turned a glare towards Sean. "Sean!" his brother shouted. "We set the timer to one month!"

"Well, we used a lot of magic on this one! We don't even know if the timer took effect!" Sean explained. "For all we know, Vincent is going to be a five year-old forever!"

"Or at least until he becomes a six year-old." Shane muttered, smacking himself in the forehead with the palm of his hand. "The spell doesn't refresh, numbskull."

"I'm still confused as to why that was so difficult." Sean said, flickering again.

"You two go rest." The Puppet said with a sigh. "Last thing we need is to lose two of our number."

"Yessir!" Sean said with a salute, then he paused. "Or ma'am. Or whatever." He vanished.

"Sean you moron…" Shane muttered. "Sorry about all this. I didn't think it would have this bad of an effect." The shadow bear vanished as well.

The Puppet shook his head and floated over to Vincent. "Let's see if I can counteract this spell."

"So if it doesn't work, I'm stuck as a five year-old. Amazing." Vincent pouted. He retained his thought processes, but his mind was beginning to cloud. He couldn't think nearly as well as he used to. Not nearly as clearly.

"Hopefully not. If all else fails we can wait until the spell wears off. If the spell was built with the timer in mind, the timer will be a part of the spell. You can't have just part of a spell." The Puppet muttered, its colorless eyes scanning Vincent. "Their spell shouldn't have done anything. Of course, aging someone up would be more difficult, simply due to the fact that it would require your body to undergo changes it hasn't experienced before. Aging someone down simply takes power, and lots of it. At least you didn't have to endure the pain of gaining years. In any case, age change spells are never permanent, the power required simply doesn't exist. Not to mention the fact that the human body will eventually revert to its normal form after any alteration spell. Shapechange, invisibility, property altering, and age change are simply not possible to be permanent."

Vincent just stared at the Puppet, not understanding a word the towering figure said. "What?"

The Puppet looked into his eyes, all patience now. "The spell won't be permanent. I promise."

"O-okay." Vincent was slightly unnerved by the Puppet's strange eyes. Before they simply brought him sadness as he remembered the color draining out of his first victim's eyes. Now his child mind thought that the eyes were creepy.

That was an unintentional change wrought by the spell the shadows had cast. His hindsight was stripped of barriers, and his emotions were uncontrollable. Any time he thought about something that had happened, it brought with it a wave of emotions, some good and others bad.

With his past, most memories brought incredible sadness. Others brought unbearable guilt, while others still made him extremely angry. There were less of this last kind, and far more of the first two, but he did remember things that made him angry.

Oddly enough, his memory was even better as a five year-old than it had been as an adult. As if his mind was healed from the damage that had occurred with death.

The Puppet looked up at the clock in the staff lounge. "I think it's about time for you to go to bed."

"So just because of a stupid prank, I have a bedtime now?" Vincent muttered angrily. He was tired, but he wasn't about to just surrender.

"Not _just_ because of their prank. I know you're tired." The Puppet insisted gently. "Now come on, let's get you to bed."

"I need to get back to work. I'll see you tomorrow." Mike said quietly, returning to his office.

Vincent sighed. "Fine."

The Puppet reached down and Vincent took its hand. The towering figure lifted him to his feet, then started walking him down the stairs. The two made their way to Vincent's room before the boy realized that he was still holding the Puppet's hand.

When Vincent entered the room he gasped and ran over to Spring. The yellow rabbit was just barely taller than Vincent now was, with the fluffy fur of a baby bunny. Funnily enough, the animatronic was still the right size to be used as a spring suit.

"Hmm…" The Puppet looked at the spring suit. "It seems the spell traveled along your spirit bond. That's… interesting."

The child felt an almost uncontrollable urge to hug the yellow rabbit. It looked so soft and fluffy. Vincent reached out and, almost reverentially, started to stroke the fluffy bunny. Inside, he felt amused about his own activity, but he also knew that this was what he wanted to do.

"Good night Vincent." The Puppet whispered as it left the room. Vincent would get to sleep soon enough, and hopefully he would have sweet dreams.

* * *

 **And here we have the result of the prank.**


	69. Just a Whisper in the Void

There was the sound of multiple people whispering.

Vincent's eyes opened. The room was dark and shadowy, but he could still see. Barely.

The first thing he noticed was that his thoughts were clear and adult. His mind was back to normal, even if his body was still childish.

The second thing he noticed was that this was not his room.

It was a decent sized room, with two doors, one on either side. Vincent was laying on a large bed, on top of the sheets, as weird as that was. On the opposite side of the room from the bed, there was a double door that led to what Vincent assumed was the closet. This room quite obviously belonged to a child, based off of the toys on the floor and the plushy on the bed.

 ** _He's aware_**

A voice, not dissimilar to the one that had been haunting him for the past couple days, spoke. The biggest difference was that it was multiple voices in concert. As soon as this voice spoke, the whispering came to a halt.

 **Poor, poor Vincent Tollini…**

That voice was the one that had been in his nightmares. Vincent looked around, trying to locate the speaker. Something told him that this creature was more than just a voice this time.

 **You have difficulty fighting off your past, and your so called friends go and remove your mental barriers for me. It's rather amusing.**

The voice was more than just a mental message now, it was an actual voice with inflections and tone. It was akin to a whisper, but far more forceful and permeating. Although it was so forceful, it was soft and quiet, although Vincent got the feeling that the voice would be audible even over a storm.

"Who are you?" Vincent asked, still looking around. He didn't honestly expect an answer, but it didn't matter. The question needed to be asked.

 **There are some legends that have persisted even in modern day. Slenderman, Weeping Angels, the Bogeyman, Cthulhu. What do these four entities have in common?**

"They're not real." The human replied, surprised that his foe answered.

 **Incorrect. All of these creatures, these legends, inspire fear. They all cause people to quiver in horror. Together, they are the things that go bump in the night. A modern scientist would classify these creatures as phobovores, fear eaters. But science has no grasp on me or my brethren.**

"Your brethren…" Vincent muttered, processing the information. "You're one of these fear eaters?"

 **I am far more than such simple creatures. While my brethren are content to persist off of fear, I have learned how to become stronger. Human souls are such interesting things. They cannot weaken in power, but they radiate magical energy. With the correct spell, you can mark a soul to be bound to a certain place upon death. With a little more preparation, you can make the marked soul send their victims to that place.**

 **Of course, with enough power, you can exponentially increase the amount of souls within your power. I've found that thirteen is the ideal number to leach power off of, regardless of whether or not they are magic users. But what use is power if you don't use it?**

"You never answered my question. Who are you?" Vincent continued to look around the room. As he watched, the sparse light began to dim and the shadows began to grow.

 **Me? I'm just a whisper in the void. I'm just a ghost in your head.**

The answer dredged itself from the depths of Vincent's subconscious. "Nightmare…" He whispered, dread growing in his mind.

As Vincent watched, the shadows began to gather in the center of the room. The darkness was impenetrable, and it ate the light instead of dissipating. With a pulse of magical energy, two blood red eyes appeared in the cloud of darkness. **He remembers!** The ethereal creature said in mock excitement. **Of course, he should. He's sent so many souls my way.**

"What?" Vincent asked, confused. "What are you talking about?"

 **Are you truly so simple minded? You bear the mark, dear Vincent Tollini! You have since the day your parents died!** Nightmare drifted across the room, its body not taking a specific form. **Your murderous tendencies aren't due to trauma, but to apathy! And nothing causes apathy better than some… debilitating nightmares.**

"So you-" Vincent started, then stopped. "You monster."

 **But of course. Do you want to know something about me, my little pet? I've existed since the birth of human emotion. The first twinges of joy, the first hints of anger. But the emotion I love most…** It paused for effect. **Is fear. Primal fear. It tastes so good. So… savory. Every kind of fear carries a different taste. Fear for oneself is salty, while fear for another is sweet. Debilitating terror carries a spicy taste, while irrational fears have a short sharp burst of flavor.**

"What does this have to do with me?" Vincent backed away from the shadowy cloud, grabbing a flashlight off of the bedside table.

 **It's quite simple. You escaped me, Tollini. I will not tolerate that. So let us talk about your fears. What you are afraid of.** It laughed, a deep demonic sound.

"I'll let you in on a secret. You're not on that particular list." Vincent said defiantly, turning on the flashlight and shining it in Nightmare's eyes.

 **Gah!** It cried out in pain, shielding its crimson orbs with a fringe of shadow. **You insolent little pest.** A clawed hand shot out of the cloud of shadow and grabbed the flashlight, which started flickering wildly. **I'll let YOU in on a secret. I should be on the top of that list. I am fear itself, you fool.**

"For some reason, I doubt that." The human replied, trying to put some space between himself and the angry creature.

 **Perhaps, but you should know this. I can see all of your fears, ALL of them. I know what you are afraid of; what all humans are afraid of. You, you're afraid of your so called family.** Nightmare drifted back, its form rippling. To one side of it, an image of the animatronics appeared. **First, the Puppet.** Said animatronic was highlighted. **Your first victim. Yet also the most powerful of them. It has so much magical power, the most of any single entity you know. But it seems to be the most caring. Seems being the operative word. Who knows, maybe one day it would simply decide to sever your soul from your body. Perhaps when you die, it might decide to not bring you back.**

"No… no, the Puppet is my friend. My family." Vincent denied, shaking his head. "It wouldn't hurt me. It wouldn't hurt anyone."

 **Is that really what you think?** Nightmare laughed. **You're a masterful liar Vincent. Even when you're talking to yourself. You fear that creepy monstrosity. You hate it, and you're afraid that it hates you too. Do you know why the Puppet's tearstains are still purple? It's not because of a design choice by Frederick Beyer, but because it's the combination of the blood of that poor child and their tears of despair. But the Puppet is not the only one you fear.** The Puppet faded and vanished, replaced by Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Fredbear. **What of these five? They all scare you in a different way. Let's start with Fredbear.** The yellow bear moved to the front. **He's a magical powerhouse. With his power, he could tear your mind apart, both physically and mentally. Not even mentioning the fact that he can teleport at will, he's quite imposing. He may have been your favorite once upon a time, but now he's terrifying.**

"Stop. Stop!" Vincent screamed, putting his hands over his ears and closing his eyes. "You're lying! I know you are!"

Nightmare's eyes flashed, and the torture continued. **But you know that I am only saying your thoughts, dear Vincent. This is the truth. But there are still nine more that you fear, and we must address each and every one…** The image shifted, and Vincent could see despite his closed eyes. **What of Freddy Fazbear? You know him to be a masterful strategist, but you also know him to be stealthy, at least as much as you are. But he's also incredibly intimidating. He may be the figure the kids look up to, but for you, he's the one who is intimidating.**

The image shifted again. **Then there's Bonnie. The big, lovable bunny. The goofy pal that every child wants to have. But in your opinion, he's dangerous. He has the ability to tear you apart, and he has done so! At any moment, Bonnie might simply decide that you look nice in four pieces.** The image shifted again. **What about Foxy? He's playful and creative, but he's also a soldier. He has the mindset required to kill those who deserve it. What if he decides that you are a threat to his family?** The image shifted again. **Last but far from least, Chica scares you. The first one to show you kindness. Yet you are afraid of her. Afraid of what will happen if you let her down.**

"Stop. Stop it!" Vincent was cowering in fear. Nightmare was hitting all the right notes to terrify him.

 **Then there are the toys. Let's start with Billy. Little Billy, the least intimidating and the most human of the animatronics. But you're afraid that you'll hurt him. And then…** Nightmare shifted the image, this time focusing on Vix and Billy. **Well, his older sister is a formidable fighter. She's already killed you once, what's to stop her from doing it again?** The image focused on Ben and Tia. **Now these two. They're equal in capability, although differing in attitude. Ben has already proven that he can outfight you, and that's one of your biggest fears. You know that Tia is Ben's equal in physical prowess, but she has a far feistier temper. What if you make her mad, and she just decides to kill you?**

"Stop it!" Vincent screamed at the top of his lungs.

 **But why stop here? There's one more.** Nightmare's eyes flashed, and the image vanished, replaced by a creature he had hoped to never see again. **Good old Springtrap. When he was around, you were insane. To such a degree I could communicate with him directly. It was rather entertaining, even if it kept your soul from me. I know you don't so much fear him as you hate him, but he does persist in a form.** Springtrap vanished, to be replaced by a friendlier seeming face. **Spring. The suit that brings you so much comfort. Yet at any moment the locks might snap, and you might go spiraling back into insanity. So where can you turn, dear Vincent?**

"No… no, go away. Leave me alone." The human whispered in despair.

 **I'm feeling generous, so I will give you a choice. You may end yourself within the next twenty-four hours, or I will kill you myself at the end of this period. Either way, your soul is mine.**

A cacophony of voices spoke. **_Take the easy way out. Please! He will torture you!_**

 **SILENCE!** Nightmare shouted. **You will all receive your punishment for speaking.**

 ** _No! Master, please!_**

 **I said SILENCE!** Nightmare gathered itself up. **Now then, you have your choice ahead of you. Sweet dreams, Vincent Tollini.**

 **As if that's possible.**

 **Hehehehehe…**

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **So, as some of you have guessed, Nightmare is indeed the mysterious entity that has been haunting Vincent. Nightmare will speak in bold, without quotation marks. A note on his appearance, he does not look like any specific thing, instead he takes the form of a cloud of shadows, with glowing red eyes.**

 **I hope you guys like how I've chosen to write Nightmare. He's unpredictable, and by human standards he would be insane.**


	70. Hush Little Baby

In the Prize Corner, "Pop Goes the Weasel" started playing.

Mark, the night guard, started to panic.

"Oh come on! I wound the music box!" He started to scream, pulling up the camera. The last time he had heard this song was when he had forgotten about the music box last night. It was probably a miracle that it had been right before six A.M., otherwise he would have been… well, something bad might have happened. The guy on the phone never specified.

"Go back to your box! Go back to your box!" Mark screeched, panicking. The night guard looked up from the tablet. "Go away bunny boy!"

Ben looked into the guard's office. The man inside hadn't once tried to actually hold a conversation with them, but that was probably okay. At the end of his week he would be told the truth anyway. He just wondered why the Puppet had left its box.

It was true that the music box hadn't run out, but the Puppet never broke the rules without reason. It certainly had a good reason here.

A child was in distress, and that was something that the Puppet would NOT tolerate.

The Puppet zipped through the hallways, its game with the night guard forgotten in favor of fulfilling its duty. It didn't matter who the child was, or what was distressing them. A child was in distress, and the Puppet needed to fix this.

A scream of fear echoed through the building. Funnily enough, it originated from the guard's office. But that wasn't the Puppet's objective. His goal was in the living quarters located under the pizzeria.

The haunted animatronic made its way into the staff lounge and from there into the living quarters.

Vincent was staring wide eyed at the door, his mind reeling from the immeasurable fear he had experienced. His breathing was frenzied, and he felt like he was on the verge of hyperventilating.

His fear was only amplified as a towering figure burst in the door. Vincent cried out in fear and pulled himself off of his bed and into the corner. This striped creature was terrifying, with colorless eyes in a porcelain face, along with spiderlike limbs.

The Puppet paused. It could clearly tell that it was causing Vincent incredible terror. But it needed to help the child. Hearing Vincent's whimpers of fear caused it an almost physical pain.

It slowly backed out of his room, keeping its worried eyes on the child up until the door closed. As soon as the door snapped shut, Vincent scrambled back onto his bed and sat there, hugging his legs and whimpering from time to time.

He jumped as a very human hand gently rested on his shoulder, and a hauntingly beautiful voice began to sing.

"Hush, little baby, don't say a word,

Mary's gonna buy you a mockingbird.

And if that mockingbird don't sing,

Mary's gonna buy you a diamond ring."

Vincent slowly began to calm down as this voice, so reminiscent of his mother's, sang to him.

"And if that diamond ring turns brass,

Mary's gonna buy you a looking glass.

And if that looking glass gets crushed,

Mary's gonna buy you a Fredbear plush…"

With that, the woman who was singing handed him his plush toy, and Vincent drifted off into true sleep, the nightmares banished.

* * *

Vincent's awakening in the morning was much calmer. His lingering thoughts were not of the nightmare, but of a happier time, back before the car crash. A time when his favorite place on earth was Fredbear's Family Diner.

The child stretched and then hugged his Fredbear plush. He didn't remember grabbing it before going to sleep, but it was here now. It didn't matter to his child's mind. He loved that plush. It was the most important object in the world to him.

Looking around, he spotted Spring in the corner of the room. He didn't hate Spring, but he was afraid of the suit for some reason. It wasn't the rabbit's appearance, that was for certain. Spring was basically what every five year-old would want in a toy. The rabbit was fluffy and friendly looking, as well as being just barely bigger than Vincent himself.

To the adult part of Vincent's mind, it was confusing how the spell had affected Spring. It was an animatronic, right? How had it become a small child as well? Maybe the spell had been to transform the target into a child, rather than winding back the clock. Vincent would assume that any spell that had to do with time was nigh impossible. But then again, so was turning someone into a child.

To the dominant child part of Vincent's mind, he was just happy to have a friend. A little scared of what this friend could do, but a friend nonetheless.

With a hug to the yellow rabbit, Vincent left his room, bringing his Fredbear plush with him. He could hear people talking upstairs.

"How are we going to cover this up?" One voice, Mike, said with a sigh. "We're going to be short one character and one very important staff member."

"Perhaps an illusion would help." That sounded like Fritz. "You're always telling me that magic can do almost anything."

"I don't have enough power to return him to his true age." This voice was monotone, most likely the Puppet. "In any case, he still has the mind of a child. Illusion cannot change the way the mind works, only what it perceives."

"Well, why not just get another guy to be Spring for a day?" Fritz sounded irritated.

"You know we only have one Spring suit. In any case, I doubt anyone could do the hyperactive character well enough for the kids to not notice a difference." Mike said, exasperated. "Not even mentioning the fact that Vincent is basically our only real security guard. Mark has no idea what actually goes on here, even if he is slowly figuring it out."

"So we're running with three 'employees' and one less mascot. Probably until the spell the brothers prankster put on Vincent wears out." Fritz sighed. "Goddammit."

Vincent walked up the stairs into the staff lounge. Fritz had left the room and Mike was having a quiet discussion with the Puppet. As soon as the child entered the room, the Puppet stopped talking and smiled gently. "Good morning Vincent. How are you doing?"

The child backed up a couple steps. The Puppet still scared him. He knew logically that it was kind, but he was still frightened.

"Are you hungry?" The Puppet asked kindly. Vincent shyly nodded in response, and it continued. "Would you like to go get breakfast?"

Again, Vincent nodded. He was really looking forward to having something to eat. He was starving.

The Puppet knelt down, hand extended towards Vincent. "I know someone who makes the best breakfast."

"Okay." Vincent said, hesitantly taking the Puppet's hand.

The Puppet stood up slowly, not to its full height, because Vincent wasn't tall enough, but to a solid six feet. Its face was in a gentle smile the whole time.

The two of them made their way through the building to the kitchen, where Chica was preparing breakfast for Fritz.

"Why hello there! What's your name little guy?" She crooned when she saw Vincent.

"Hi Chica." The child said shyly.

"Hello Chica. We had a little issue involving the shadow brothers." The Puppet explained.

"Are they doing that whole 'impossible magic' thing again?" Chica asked sympathetically.

"Yes, and Vincent here is experiencing the effects." The Puppet gestured towards him. "Could you take care of him for a little while? I still need to prepare for today."

"Okay then." Chica nodded, then turned to Vincent. "So what do you want for breakfast Vincent?"

"Pancakes." Vincent answered, then added on the end. "Please." He sat down at a table that was in the

"Okay then, pancakes, coming right up!" The chicken started multitasking, continuing to cook the bacon for Fritz's breakfast, while going to work on the pancake batter. As always, she made it from scratch, combining the ingredients in between checking on Fritz's food. "You want any chocolate or blueberries?"

"Blueberries." Was the answer. Vincent didn't much like chocolate.

"Gotcha!" Chica grabbed a small handful of blueberries and put them into the batter. After a couple seconds of stirring, she ladled some of the batter on to a skillet and let it cook. "Do you want anything else?"

Vincent thought for a moment. "Can I have an apple?" He didn't really like to put things on his pancakes, but he did like fruit.

"Absolutely!" Chica cheerfully replied. She stepped aside to the pantry and grabbed an apple, then stepped over and handed it to him. "The pancakes will be done in a few minutes. Fritz! Your food is ready!"

The programmer walked into the kitchen to see Vincent eating an apple. Fritz grinned. "Hey kiddo."

"Don't call me that. I'm older than you are." Vincent replied grumpily.

"Not right now you aren't." Fritz said with a snigger.

"It's not like it's my fault!" The child wailed, his emotions getting the better of him.

"Fritz, take your food and go." Chica said, uncharacteristically harsh.

"Sorry." The programmer apologized, taking his plate of food and leaving.

Chica walked over to Vincent and set a plate of pancakes down on the table in front of him. "Hey, is something bothering you Vincent?" She asked worriedly.

"Yes! I've been turned into a five year-old, both physically and mentally! I can't control my emotions, and from time to time I just go and do something I can't understand!" He cried out, and slammed his head on the table. "That's not even mentioning Nightmare." This last part was muffled beyond understanding.

"Hey, don't worry." Chica rested her hand on Vincent's back. "We'll solve this. I promise."

"But what if we can't fix it? What if I'm stuck like this forever?" Vincent looked up at Chica, his eyes wide with fear. "What happens then?"

"We're your family. We won't let that happen." Chica pulled Vincent in and gave him a hug. "And if it does, we'll take care of you. We will get through this."

Vincent returned the hug. "Thank you." He whispered. Things were looking up.

Even if it was his last day alive.

* * *

 **Adult Vincent has spent most of his life controlling his emotions, or lacking them entirely. Now that he's a kid again, Vincent has no idea how to keep his emotions under wraps.**


	71. Bullies

Vincent was on his elbows in the Prize Corner. The Puppet was watching over him for now, seeing as it was the least busy of all of the animatronics, and Mike and Percy had paperwork. Fritz would have volunteered, if he was any good with children.

When it came to most forms of art, Vincent was horrible. He couldn't play instruments, and his singing left a lot to be desired. He couldn't write either, having never been in school at all. But drawing was something he could do fairly well. Fortunately for him, the Puppet had all manner of coloring tools stashed away in its box, so now he was drawing,

Although in this case, he had no idea what this was.

He had just been drawing, but as he continued to draw, he had payed less and less attention to it. Now that it was nearing completion, it scared him.

The creature he was drawing was massive, with long claws and monstrous teeth. It looked like some sort of humanoid bear, but at the same time it gave the feeling that it was something else entirely. The most disturbing thing was the eyes. They were blood red, despite not having any crayons of that color. The whole creature was a shadowy black. It absorbed light, the crayoned lines coming to life on the page.

 **Aww, little Vincent is an artist!** Nightmare taunted. **Draw Springtrap next, I'm sure he would love it.**

"Go away." Vincent muttered, tearing the paper up and grabbing a new sheet. This time he focused on his drawing, trying to portray a friendlier face. He began to draw Spring, the first friend that came to mind.

 **Make it rougher. With sharper teeth.** Nightmare laughed. **A little plush trap.**

"Shut up Nightmare." The human gritted his teeth. He had to focus this time, so as to prevent Nightmare from influencing his actions. The ethereal entity couldn't affect Vincent's actions unless he wasn't paying attention, but the subconscious suggestions that Nightmare utilized could slip through. That was probably how it had managed to get Vincent to draw that monster.

Despite Vincent's concentration, some of Nightmare's suggestions influenced his actions. The resulting drawing was still something that he didn't like, although it was far less disturbing than the dark monster. This version of Spring was a darker color, with rips and tears in its fur. The teeth were pointy, but not particularly intimidating. The eyes were white, with no irises and black pupils.

 **Hmm… could use more claws.** Nightmare commented.

"Since when were you an artist?" Vincent asked, scrapping this paper as well and going to draw something else. Something not related to the animatronics this time. Maybe he would draw a pizza, just for the heck of it.

 **Since the beginning of humanity. Weren't you listening?** Nightmare made a scoffing sound. **I am the creator of bad dreams. Everything I do is art.**

"You also don't shut up." Vincent retorted. "Can't you let me have my last day in peace?"

 **As you wish, oh high and mighty artist.** Nightmare mocked. **Just remember, after tonight, you're mine.**

Vincent waited a second to see if Nightmare would speak again, then shrugged. "Good riddance."

"Who are you talking to?"

The child looked up at the Puppet, who was leaning out of its box. "Oh, hi Puppet. It's not important, just talking to myself."

The Puppet raised an eye ridge. "If you say so." It reached into its box and took out an amulet. This one was very different from the one Franklin had. The amulet was a ring on a piece of string, the ring itself made out of strings. "I was working on this, it should help with your nightmares." It handed the amulet to Vincent.

"Umm…" Vincent mumbled. "I don't know…" The last amulet hadn't helped at all. If anything, it had made things worse. Apparently Fredbear's presence mitigated any psychic invasions, and Vincent honestly didn't understand what the Puppet was talking about when it had said that. The Puppet had also said something about the amulet nullifying the protective aura, although that was also complete gibberish to Vincent.

"Please, at least wear it." The Puppet almost pleaded. "It will soothe your fears."

"Okay then…" Vincent put the amulet on. There was no marked difference, but he could sense that there was a slight change. "I don't feel different."

"Its effect will take place once you sleep." The Puppet explained. "With luck, it will help to resolve your nightmares."

"I hope so." The child muttered in response.

The Puppet hesitated for a moment, then snapped its fingers as it got an idea. "Tell you what, go play some arcade games. I know Chica has the top scores on everything, but you can still enjoy yourself." It reached into its box and pulled out a cup filled to the brim with tokens.

Vincent took the cup and paused for a moment. "Thanks Puppet."

"Go, enjoy yourself." It said with a smile. As Vincent walked off, it returned to its task of preparing prizes.

The first game Vincent went to was Pac-man. Sure, there were lots of new games with amazing graphics, but Vincent liked the games that reminded him of earlier times. The classics were his favorites. Centipede, Pac-man, space invaders, and Donkey Kong were all games that he enjoyed.

"C'mon Blinky, don't follow me so closely…" Vincent muttered as the red ghost chased after him. He was about to grab the last power pellet when Pinky came out of nowhere and killed him, ending the game. Vincent shrugged and went to put another token in when he heard something that wasn't exactly friendly.

"C'mon, that stupid rabbit's not here today. Maybe we can get some high scores now."

It sounded like those teens from yesterday were back, and they were going to get into the machines once again. The saddest part was that the four of them were breaking into the arcade machines just to get a high score.

The child placed his cup of tokens in a little alcove behind the token machine. As far as Vincent knew, nobody knew about this little hidey hole, so hopefully it should be a good hiding place. But the tokens were secondary, Vincent couldn't just let someone dismantle the arcade machines.

"Just take the back off and wipe the data, how hard is it?" One of the delinquents asked impatiently. "Then we can just take the high score and lock the scoreboard."

"Hacking in is a lot harder than it looks, you stupid jock." The teen at the back of the machine replied. "Anyways, I thought the plan was to get a million tokens to do this."

"Nah, this is more permanent. The high scores the stupid management put on there would just be put back in." A third one put in. "Just don't screw it up and ruin the game."

"You have no idea how hard that is." The techie of the group said again.

"You shouldn't mess with the arcade machines." A voice warned. To Vincent's surprise, it was him. Apparently he couldn't keep his goddam mouth shut, now that he was a kid.

One of the teens jumped, then looked around and spotted Vincent. "Push off brat."

"You shouldn't open the machines." Vincent persisted.

"Shut up you little kid. Get out of here." The teen said again.

"Freddy wouldn't want you to mess with the machines." The child continued, trying to stall for time. He knew he wasn't going to get them to stop on his own, but with luck one of the animatronics would wander by.

"I don't give a damn what the stupid bear wants." The teen launched a half-hearted kick at Vincent. "Now get out of here before I decide to beat the hell out of you."

"Swearing's against the rules." Vincent said, dodging the kick. He wasn't as fast as he was used to, but he was fast enough.

"Like I give a crap." The teen said, turning away. "Now push off you little brat."

Vincent rushed around and grabbed the screwdriver that the techie behind the machine was using. With a flick of his wrist, he slid it under another arcade machine. "Why you little-!"

One of the teens grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling him back, and a heavy fist hit him in the stomach. All the air flew out of Vincent's lungs, and lights danced before his eyes. That had _hurt_. He was dropped to the ground with a jarring _thud_ and a lot of pain.

He was showered in blows, each hurting him more than the last. Vincent was certain he would be bruised later. After a little while, a more familiar voice spoke. "Now what do you think you're doing?"

"Oh look, it's the stupid purple rabbit."

"Uh-huh. Glad to know I'm so easily recognized. You still haven't answered my question." Bonnie sounded irritated.

"Just ignore the robot. I need to find my screwdriver."

"Damn machine's just standing here."

"You know, my satellite dish ears may be amusing, but I can hear literally everything you're saying. Cussing isn't allowed in this establishment pal. Come to that, neither is tampering with the arcade machines." Bonnie tsked. "You four really know how to break the rules."

"Screw off you stupid rabbit."

"Alright, I give you punks to the count of five to scram." Bonnie warned. "One."

"Let's just take the rabbit apart. It's not like it can stop us."

"Two."

"Just beat it up like we did that little brat."

"Five." There was the sound of punches being thrown, followed immediately by groans of pain.

"Dumb rabbit can't count…" One of the teens muttered from his new position face down on the floor.

"Oh I assure you, I can count perfectly well. Well enough to know that there will be four corpses if you morons ever decide to step foot in this place ever again." Bonnie threatened. "Nobody. NOBODY. Hurts a child here and gets away with it. Am I understood?"

"Screw off…" the teen mumbled under his breath.

"Didn't I just say I could hear you from the other room? Get out of here, you spoiled little brats." The animatronic spat. "I'm stronger and faster than all four of you combined. Now run along. I don't want to hear your obnoxious voices or smell your foul odor ever again."

The four rulebreakers scrambled off, trying to get as far away from this intimidating animatronic as possible.

A soft paw gently rested on Vincent's arm. "Hey buddy, you okay?"

Vincent groaned in pain. Everything hurt, and he was having difficulty breathing.

"I'm so sorry. I should've gotten here faster." Bonnie quietly apologized, gently picking the child up. Vincent had never noticed it before, but Bonnie's fur was incredibly soft. The rabbit was as gentle as could be, carrying Vincent into the Prize Corner. Holding Vincent in one arm, the animatronic tapped on the top of the Puppet's box.

"What is it?" came the response. "I'm kind of busy."

"Puppet, Vincent's hurt." Bonnie explained.

Immediately, the lid of the box flew open and the Puppet rose out of it. "What happened?"

"A bunch of teens came in and started tampering with the arcade machines. When Vincent found out, he tried to stop them. Brave, but not exactly smart." Bonnie looked down at the child in his arms. "Sorry Vince." He looked back up at the Puppet. "When Vincent took a screwdriver away from one of them, they beat him up."

"They won't be able to do it again when I'm done with them." The Puppet promised.

"They won't be coming back, Puppet." Bonnie said. "I made sure of that."

The Puppet paused for a moment. "Are you certain?" Bonnie nodded in confirmation. "Very well." It sighed and looked at the injured child. Its face reflected its worry. "Poor child…" It muttered. "I'm so sorry…"

"You can best take care of him." Bonnie said, handing Vincent over to the care of the Puppet.

The Puppet gently took Vincent, who had fallen asleep. "I'll help you, little Vincent. I will protect you."

* * *

 **Nightmare is a narcissistic jerk. Just thought I should say that.**

 **Also, Bonnie's protective nature came in handy here.**


	72. Time to Sleep

"Wake up Vincent. It's past closing time."

The child stirred and opened his eyes. This place wasn't somewhere he recognized, but he wasn't worried too much. The Puppet was here with him, and it wouldn't let anything hurt him. Vincent sat upand looked around. "Where are we?"

"The extradimensional confines of my box." The Puppet's voice answered. "There's a lot more in here than one would expect based purely off of the dimensions of the box on the outside."

"Like a TARDIS?" Vincent asked. He was a fan of Doctor Who. Nightmare probably knew that, seeing as it had talked about weeping angels. It made Vincent wonder what exactly Nightmare knew about him.

There was the sound of laughter. "Yes, like a TARDIS."

"Where are you?" He looked around again. Despite hearing the Puppet, he hadn't seen it yet.

"Right here." The Puppet answered, coming out of a room that was adjacent to the one Vincent was resting in.

It wasn't in its usual spindly limbed form. Instead, it was wearing the disguise that it had developed for the day that everyone had gone to the park. With their colorless eyes and bleached white hair, they would have looked strange to the average observer. To Vincent, however, he saw one of the people who took care of him and protected him from harm.

In the back of Vincent's mind, he felt more comfortable around this human version of the Puppet. He didn't quite know why though.

He had to ask though. "Why are you using the illusion in here?"

Marion smiled warmly. "I feel more comfortable when using this form. More… human. It's been forever since I could feel normal. But thanks to your ingenious idea, I can do it at almost any time." The slender person walked over to him, holding a plate of pizza. "Here in my box, it doesn't even take much energy to do it." They handed the plate to Vincent. "Here's your dinner, Chica made it earlier but we didn't really want to wake you up early."

"Thank you Marion." The child replied, taking a bite out of his pizza. As always, it was fantastic. Chica truly was a master chef.

"I'm glad you're happy." Marion replied with a smile. Their face turned serious. "What exactly was your nightmare last night? You were so scared."

Vincent hesitated for a little while, then shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it."

"If ever you need someone to talk to, let me know. I can help you." The supernatural creature assured. "In any case, I think Mike has been wanting to talk to you."

"Okay." Vincent finished his pizza and set the plate down on the side table of the bed he had been sitting on. "How do we leave?"

"Take my hand." Marion extended a hand out towards him. After a fraction of a second, Vincent reached out and took it.

"Hold on." Marion warned. For a few seconds, reality seemed to stretch. Just as it seemed the world would tear apart, the two of them wound up outside the box.

"Woah…" Vincent let go of the Puppet's hand and grabbed his head. "That was weird. Do you have to go through that every time you leave your box?"

"Not every time, but whenever I enter the extradimensional space, yes." The Puppet said, having reverted back to its ordinary form upon leaving the box. "You get used to it after a while."

"Okay…" Vincent muttered, trying to steady himself after the dizzying experience. "So what now?"

"Come with me, Mike wants to chat." The Puppet informed him.

"Okay." Vincent said, following the Puppet. It led him to Mike's office, where the man was doing paperwork.

As they entered the room, Mike looked up. "Hello you two. How are you feeling Vincent?"

"Better. I'm not hurting anymore." That was something that had slightly confused Vincent. His nerves were basically dead when it came to pain, he knew this from experience. Apparently, when the shadows had transformed him, it had fixed his nerves. Vincent didn't know if he liked or hated it.

Mike smiled kindly. "That's good. The Puppet's good at healing. That's more or less its specialty."

"Mostly due to how often I must utilize my healing skill." The Puppet joked. "I mean, what kind of healer gets as good as I am without extensive practice?"

"Hopefully the brothers can learn how to use their extreme magical capability on something that isn't a prank. With luck, one or both of them will discover that they can heal injuries." Mike shook his head. "I never really understood how that worked. You said that you couldn't use your abilities to levitate until a couple years after the Puppet became your vessel. What exactly did you mean?"

"Some spirits develop skills the longer they exist. Some older spirits can do things that would be otherwise impossible, such as transforming living beings into other things permanently. Other spirits simply have all of their magical capability from the moment they die. Others still have immense magical power, but still develop new skills as they persist. It's impossible to tell right at the start." The Puppet explained, going into teacher mode. "Some spirits have a completely unique power, but no other magic. Others are extremely specialized, such as Fredbear. He has extraordinary power when it comes to telepathy, and teleportation on the scale he does is incredibly difficult; but that's about all he can do."

Vincent looked up at the tall figure next to him, understanding none of what it said. "What?"

Mike laughed. "We're getting off topic here Puppet. I know you're training to be the world's first undead school teacher, but we do have other things to talk about."

"Of course, sorry." The Puppet apologized.

"So what did you want me for?" Vincent asked, curious. What did Mike need from him? He was just a kid now.

"First, I wanted to ask you if you were OK. Those punks have been banned from the pizzeria in multiple ways, but you were really hurt." Mike began. "But my real reason for calling you here has to do with your transformation."

"What do you mean?" Vincent shifted on his feet.

"With your new perspective, you can let us know how best to appeal to children." Mike explained. "Since your mind has been changed with your body, you can let us know what most children classify as entertaining."

"Well…" Vincent started, thinking. "More one on one time with the animatronics would be something anyone wants. But it's not really possible without having more of them. Otherwise, the pizzeria is the best it can be right now."

The adult nodded in response. "Okay, thanks for your input. Now then." He leaned forward, worry in his eyes. "You woke up last night screaming in fear. What was it that bothered you?"

"I don't wanna talk about it." Vincent muttered, wondering why everyone was trying to play therapist. He couldn't talk about this issue. Nobody could help. Nightmare was powerful, this much Vincent knew for certain. It would be able to kill him regardless of what help he may receive. The last thing Vincent wanted was to give Nightmare another target.

"Vincent, we're here for you. All of us." Mike assured him. "If you need anything, please, let me know."

"I really don't want to talk about it." Vincent stated adamantly. "It was just a bad nightmare."

"If you say so…" Mike looked up at the clock in his room. "It's almost eight, you should probably be getting to bed soon."

"But I just woke up!" The child protested. "I'm not tired."

"Are you sure about that?" The Puppet asked him, one of its eye ridges raised. "You know as well as I do that falling unconscious doesn't give you the same amount of rest as actual sleep."

"No really, I'm not tired." He yawned at the last word, proving himself wrong.

"Alright, it's off to bed with you." The Puppet said, a kind smile on its face. "Come on."

"Don't wanna go to bed." Vincent pouted. He knew he was tired, but he refused to surrender. Not to mention his reluctance to reenter Nightmare's domain.

 **Aww, Vincent's adorable.** Nightmare commented. **He thinks that by staying awake he can evade my grasp. Cute.**

Vincent paused for a moment, processing what Nightmare had said. It could reach him even when he was awake? That was not something that comforted him.

 **Twenty four hours. That's how long you have, your state of consciousness doesn't matter.** Nightmare laughed. **You might want to answer. People are starting to stare.**

The child suddenly realized that the Puppet had said his name multiple times. "Sorry, what?"

"You must really be tired, you're just zoning out." The Puppet said, kneeling down. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

It reached out towards him, a kind smile on its face. After a moment's hesitation, Vincent took its hand, and in a flash, he was laying in its stick-thin arms. The Puppet moved like lightning, zipping through the building at high speed. In the blink of an eye, they wound up in Vincent's room.

The Puppet set him down gently on his bed, humming a song under its breath. After tucking him in, it turned to leave.

"Puppet?"

"Hmm?" It turned back around, a quizzical expression on its face.

"Good night."

The Puppet smiled. "Good night."

 **Good night Vincent, I'll be seeing you soon.**

* * *

 **Yes, I am a fan of Doctor Who. Among other things.**


	73. Nightmares and Death

Like the last time Vincent entered Nightmare's domain, he was met with the sound of multiple people whispering. It was impossible to tell how many people, or whether they were men or women, but there was more than five.

 ** _He should have killed himself._**

 ** _Nonsense! He should fight! Nobody should give in to Nightmare!_**

 ** _Watch what you say Paul. Nightmare's always listening._**

 ** _I don't care! I'm sick of being a tool to torture people. I never wanted this!_**

 ** _None of us did, but we deserve this hell._**

 ** _One of us wanted it, although he's certainly sick in the head._**

 ** _Oh god, is Barry here?_**

 ** _No, thank god for that._**

 ** _Shut up. He's listening._**

 ** _Barry?_**

 ** _No, Vincent._**

With that, the cacophony of voices grew silent, and the air grew tense with anticipation. Vincent got the distinct feeling that the voices that he heard weren't hostile towards him, but they had a bizarre quality that reminded Vincent of Nightmare. Some of those voices sounded familiar, but the ephemeral quality of the sounds threw off Vincent's memory.

The room was dark and gloomy like before, but now there was a weight in the air that brought dread to Vincent's heart. He slowly got up off of the bed and walked over to the bedside table. Last time, the flashlight had hurt Nightmare's eyes. If that was the case, maybe he could ward the monster off until dawn.

 **Not likely to work, although your persistence is… amusing.**

Vincent whirled around to see the creature that he dreaded. The glowing red eyes staring out of a cloud of shadow. Nightmare drifted around, its diaphanous form shifting endlessly.

 **Human souls are so interesting. So persistent. They refuse to surrender, even when they know themselves to be lost. The human soul never really weakens either. It can only grow stronger as it persists after death. Yet the soul can, and very much will, go insane without a vessel to keep it stable.** Nightmare laughed. **Of course, humans themselves are odd. They've invented many things that would never have otherwise existed. Boredom, for example. Humans have also invented things that I myself find useful. One of the more useful things I've learned is cruelty.**

The human remained silent through this whole monologue, then spoke. "You really love to hear yourself talk, don't you?"

 **And why shouldn't I? I am the only constant in an ever changing world, I am the most powerful entity in existence. I've more than earned the right to boast.**

Vincent very seriously doubted that everything Nightmare said was true. There was always something stronger, he knew that for a fact. What he did know was that Nightmare had learned how to develop an ego, along with how to be a cruel monster.

"I'm not going to let you take my soul." Vincent said adamantly.

 **But didn't you hear the damned souls saying that they deserved this fate?** Nightmare laughed again, its strangely echoing laughter being very different from its quiet voice. **Oh yes, they all deserved this fate, even if they never wanted it. And you? You're worse than any one of them.**

"No. You're the one who caused me to do it. You're the one who caused all of them to do it too. The only one here who deserves damnation is you." The human retorted.

 **True, I did influence them. To a degree. But they are the ones who carried through. Just like how you are the one who killed thirty one people, eleven of them children, and one of them your own student.** Nightmare replied. As it spoke, it generated an image in the air. **Let's talk about your victims, shall we? Let's start with the beginning.** The image resolved itself into Fredbear's Family Diner. **The Puppet would make a great parent, wouldn't it? Such a shame she's dead.**

"What?" Vincent's mind reeled. Did Nightmare just call the Puppet a she?

 **Oh yes. Poor little Mary. She just wanted to see Fredbear. Her favorite character in the world. But instead, you decided to perform a drug trade on that day.** The image showed Vincent, holding a knife at the throat of the small child. It wasn't easy to tell what gender they were, as they had fairly short hair and no defining features apart from their brightly colored eyes. **Her brilliant purple eyes haunted your dreams for the next two years. She doesn't remember anything about her life any more now. Not her name, nor her appearance. Not even her gender. Poor thing.**

"I…" Vincent didn't feel the fear that Nightmare's presence should have inspired, but he did feel sad. He knew full well that he had ruined so many lives, but learning about them made him feel worse.

 **Then, there are the first five.** The image shifted, showing the inside of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The animatronics were backstage for maintenance, but Vincent was bringing five children into the backstage room. The guise of the Spring Bonnie suit allowing him to lure them there. **Their names are forgotten to all but their parents. And even then, their parents are either too old, or dead.**

The image changed to show the backstage room. **First, you slit the throat of one boy. Then, as the girl tried to run, you disemboweled her.** As Nightmare spoke, the image followed the actions. Vincent taking one of the children and quickly slitting his throat, then whirling and slicing across the stomach of a blonde girl. **That little red headed boy tried to fight you, grabbing a wrench to try and fight you off. It was cute, really. He had the speed, but not the experience, there was no way he could have survived; and he didn't. You stabbed him in the eye, all the way through to his brain.** The red-headed boy, shorter than the previous two, grabbed a tool and swung it at Vincent. The man forced the tool out of the child's hand and then stabbed him in the eye. **Then there were two. The brothers. You stabbed one of them in the heart, the older one. Then you walked over and snapped the younger brother's neck.** Vincent wrenched the knife out of the redhead's skull, then plunged it into the ribcage of the oldest child. With a quick motion, he reached out and snapped the last child's neck. **All dead, because of you.**

"I know these things." Vincent stated. He felt bad, but not to the point that Nightmare probably wanted.

 **What of the second group of five? They were fortunate to remember their names, or at least, four of them did.** The image showed the 1987 Freddy Fazbear's Pizza location. **Billy didn't have many friends, but he had a loving older sister. Veronica brought along three of her friends to celebrate Billy's birthday.** Four preteens appeared on the scene. The tallest of the four was brown haired, and had a book in his hands. Two others acted like they were brother and sister, although the girl was Hispanic, while the boy looked like he was of European descent. The last one was the youngest, with a pink highlight in her hair. She looked like she was related to the birthday boy. **Then you killed them. All of them. Theodore, Veronica, Benjamin, Tia, and Billy, the birthday boy.**

"Again, this isn't news." Vincent said, still not understanding what Nightmare's point was. "I feel horrible about what I've done, but I can't change it."

 **Something has changed. You aren't reacting properly. What changed…?** Nightmare seemed irritated. **It doesn't matter. You'll be dead momentarily.**

"Not if I can help it." With a flick of his wrist, Vincent shined the flashlight in his hands at Nightmare's eyes. As the formless shadow reeled back in surprise, Vincent ran off, blitzing down one of the side hallways.

 **GET HIM!** An enraged shout echoed through the building, quite different from Nightmare's usual soft speech. It seemed the shadowy creature was extremely mad. Vincent wasn't sure that was a good thing.

As Vincent ran, he was aware of something monstrous following him. Something massive was thundering down the hallway behind him. But Vincent couldn't afford to slow down and see what it was. It was certainly a minion of Nightmare's.

With a quick movement, Vincent pointed the flashlight directly behind him and turned it on. His efforts were rewarded when something went **_Gah!_** and crashed into a wall. It sounded similar to one of the voices from earlier, although Vincent couldn't tell which one.

Vincent turned a corner to be met by a towering figure. He didn't see what it looked like, apart from its glowing eyes and long limbs, but he could tell it would try to kill him. Just before he crashed into it, he dodged to one side and zipped between its legs, just barely fast enough to evade the grasping claws that the monster had tried to grab him with.

 ** _Dammit!_** It cursed as he ran away from it. In the blink of an eye, its torso whirled around on its waist. Another claw slashed the air behind Vincent as the monster cursed again.

 ** _Come back here! I'll tear you apart!_** It swore, trying to lunge at him. Its action failed, mostly due to the fact that its knees were facing the wrong way. **_Goddammit! I hate this body!_**

 **Count your blessings, wretch.** Nightmare seemed to have been following Vincent the whole time, and just now stopped to punish the towering monster. **I could have relegated you to a lesser role.**

 ** _I'm sorry! Don't hurt me!_** The creature's attitude changed in a heartbeat. It seemed genuinely terrified of Nightmare; but then, most people would be. **_I got carried away! I have temper issues!_**

 **I know you do…** Nightmare crooned, its voice changing to a false kindness. **That's what makes you such a good minion.**

Vincent managed to make it around another corner into another room while Nightmare was distracted with its minion. For some reason, it seemed like Nightmare was prioritizing the discipline of its creatures over the catching of Vincent. But then, that made sense with what Nightmare had said before. It wasn't exactly limited by time or location, at least, according to it.

 ** _Hi there!_**

The human jumped and looked around. There wasn't anything here, at least that he could see.

 ** _Did Nightmare bring me a new toy? Sweet!_**

This voice sounded somewhat childish, with undertones that were more sinister even than Nightmare. It didn't have the same power as Nightmare did, but it sounded more deranged than even the shadow monster.

Now that he was looking, there was a childlike shadowy figure. It was less like Nightmare's ever-shifting form, but like a silhouette minus the light behind it.

 ** _My name's Barry! I heard your name was Vincent. I also heard that you killed thirty people, but then shorty said thirty-one. That's pretty cool!_** The figure giggled, a strangely demonic sound.

Dread began to grow in Vincent's mind. This little figure, Barry, was probably more dangerous than many of the people he had worked alongside during his first life. That wasn't even taking into account the strange nature of the creature.

 ** _Barry. This is my kill._** This voice was similar to the one that had cried out in pain earlier. As Vincent watched in horror, a bulky figure walked in the doorway. **_I WILL have my revenge._**

 ** _NO! He's MINE!_** The childish voice shouted, launching itself at the larger creature. **_You're not taking my toy away before I'm done!_**

 **You're both children.** Nightmare's voice rang out. The shadowy creature coalesced in the room, two clawed hands shooting out of its formless cloud. One hand grabbed the larger figure and roughly lifted it into the air. The other hand grabbed the back of Barry's head and pulled him off of the other creature.

 ** _But Nightmare! I wanna play!_** Barry seemed far less scared of Nightmare than the other monsters were. The little figure seemed to be insane.

 **I know you do, my little pet, but now is not the time. This one will be joining us for a far longer time than most. Now go, I need to chat with our victim.** Nightmare said, for once seeming gentle.

 ** _Fine._** The silhouette vanished.

 **As for you, Aaron. You will be disciplined for letting Vincent evade you for so long.**

 ** _You know I want Vincent dead as much as you do._** The larger of Nightmare's minions replied. **_I was not aware that he had a flashlight, otherwise I would have been more cautious._**

 **It doesn't matter. You'll be replaced soon enough. I hope you enjoy oblivion.**

 ** _Anything is better than this._** The taciturn creature retorted, vanishing.

 **Ungrateful abominations, the both of them.** Nightmare's clawed limbs vanished back into its shadowy body, as if they were made of the same material as its ephemeral form. **It's rather amusing, neither of them should be here, and yet they fit in so well with my plans. Both were killed by the marked ones, but they were killers in their own rights. Barry was an absolute lunatic in life, dying at the age of eight. He had murdered both his parents and all three of his older siblings. The one who killed him was a marked one who drove off a cliff. The suicide attempt hit Barry and killed him. While the one who was marked was absolutely useless to me, Barry is one of my favorites. Although he's selfish and greedy.** Nightmare chuckled, its form stretching to block the doorway. **Aaron, on the other hand, was an adult when he died. He's a born soldier, with no war to fight in. It made him a great mercenary, although he was killed by a young man. This young man quickly became more famous and deadly than he ever was.**

Vincent slowly internalized this information. Aaron, the massive monster that had tried to kill him just now, was the second person he had ever killed. "How is this important?"

 **It really isn't. But you ought to know about your new co-workers. After all, you'll be stuck with them for eternity. Only the most powerful souls will be kept, regardless of magical capability. Aaron simply isn't as strong as you are. He's the weakest link, but he's still stronger than most human souls.** Nightmare performed a sort of psychic shrug, getting its point across without performing the action. **It doesn't matter that much, really. Not to you. Especially since you'll be dying soon.**

Nightmare extended a clawed hand toward Vincent.

 **Good bye Vincent.**


	74. Tomorrow is Another Day

He was falling.

An endless void spiraling around him, he was lost in darkness. There was nothing below or above him. There was nothing, both outside and inside of his mind.

 _No. This isn't real._

With a thud, he fell to the ground. A gray wasteland, nothing but a bland plain. The darkness was limiting his sight, and there was nothing above him but the void he had fallen out of.

 _"Why did you do it?"_

Vincent looked around, now spotting a small figure that hadn't been there before. It was one that he could never forget, a little girl with short hair and almost luminous eyes. She looked at him and tilted her head.

 _"Why did you kill me?"_ She asked again, stepping closer. _"What gain did you have?"_

"I-I panicked! I didn't want to!" Vincent protested, knowing that something was wrong here. "I never wanted to kill anyone!"

 _"Really? Is this the truth, or are you just lying again?"_ The color of her eyes began to leak out, draining to colorless as twin purple stains poured down the little girl's face. As Vincent watched in horror, the girl's mouth gaped open, locking in an endless smile with nothing but darkness behind it. _"You cannot hide the truth from me!"_ It screeched as its limbs elongated and its skin turned pale.

 _This isn't real. Come back._

The world spun, the scenery blurring and changing, coming to a halt on a familiar scene.

He was in the Prize Corner. In the pizzeria. Compared to the previous scene, this was extremely friendly. There was Vix, sitting on the chair that was a prop for her story time. While Foxy told more exciting stories to the older kids, Vix created stories for the younger children. On the other side of the room, BB was handing out balloons to the children. The Puppet's box was right there, its occupant most likely inside.

Something seemed off.

After a moment of thought, he realized he was back in his adult body. That was impossible though, right? The Puppet had told him that even it didn't have enough magic to turn him back, but here he was. Nightmare was likely more powerful than the Puppet, seeing as it drew power from multiple souls, but it had no reason to transform him back.

That left one option.

This wasn't real.

"Hey Vince! What's up?"

Vincent shook of the feelings of strangeness. "Hey Vix what's…"

Vix seemed different. Quite notably so.

There was blood on her teeth.

"Vix…" Vincent began.

"What's the matter Vince? _I was just having a snack."_ The fox replied, standing up. Her eyes vanished, leaving the dark voids that Vincent had learned to be wary of. _"After all, a cranium tastes so much better when the person is scared."_

 _Come back to the room._

Vincent opened his eyes. He was back in the room with the bed and two doors.

 ** _He made it out._**

 ** _Good for him! Nightmare isn't as powerful as he thinks!_**

 ** _Nightmare is all powerful Mister Paul._**

 ** _Umm. Sorry Barry. I misspoke._**

 ** _It's okay Mister Paul! Everyone makes mistakes! Like that time when I let the kid bleed out instead of getting his spinal cord._**

 ** _Um. Yeah._**

 **Silence. All of you.**

 ** _Yes Nightmare._**

He did a quick self-inventory. Wits: check. Nightmare's minions chattering about him: check. Life?

 **You're quite a unique one, you know that Vincent?**

Probably safe to say he was still alive, seeing as how he still looked like a little kid and there was still a voice in his head. But how was he still alive? Hadn't Nightmare said it would kill him?

The human sat up and got to his feet. He stretched, then asked the question that was eating at him "So, your attempt to kill me failed?"

 **Unfortunately. You're protected by a quite powerful entity. Not as strong as I am, but clever. That amulet you're wearing can deflect my power. A neat trick, and one that I never expected.** Nightmare performed its strange form of shrug. **It shouldn't change the outcome. With enough time I can drive you to insanity anyways. Although the fact that you escaped the vortex is a surprise. It should have driven you mad.**

"I can do a lot of things that may surprise you." Vincent replied. "Contrary to what you seem to think, I never took pleasure in killing people. I'm not a sicko like Barry. In my case, the only reason I killed is because of you."

 **True enough. How are you liking your room?** A set of razor sharp teeth appeared in Nightmare's formless substance.

"It's creepy." Vincent stated flatly. "What's your angle?"

 **It should be creepy. Many children know this room.** Nightmare said smugly, ignoring Vincent's question. **Different monsters and routes, different fears. Sometimes its snakes, other times shadows. But every child who entered this room feared it at the end.**

The closet opened, revealing ten monstrous creatures. All of them were blatantly mechanical, with metal eyes and metal skeletons visible on parts of them. The odd one out was a towering figure that was continually leering at him. Its eyes openly showed its hatred of him, while the more mechanical creatures all showed more indifference than anything else.

They looked like distorted versions of his friends. As he watched, the nightmarish Freddy had three smaller monsters climb out of the tears in its body. It surreptitiously began to rub the head of one of these little creatures, showing its softer side. The instant the nightmare Freddy noticed that Vincent was watching, it stopped and snarled at him.

 **Do you like them? I will admit that I used your design for this one.** A clawed hand reached out of Nightmare's shadow and gestured to the smallest of these nightmare animatronics, apart from the small creatures that the Freddy creature had within its body. This creature that Nightmare pointed out looked incredibly familiar to Vincent.

After all, he had drawn it.

It was Spring, but at the same time, not Spring. It had sharp teeth, and lots of them. All of these monsters were more obviously mechanical than the modern designs of the animatronics, with obvious hinges on the jaws and no facial expression apart from their extremely expressive eyes. The small rabbit was the least obviously mechanical, apart from the towering figure that was glaring at Vincent, although it had tears in its costume and dead eyes.

 **Barry, do you like your little costume?** Nightmare asked the creature.

 ** _It could use more claws, but otherwise it's great!_** The child spirit replied, baring its teeth at Vincent. The knowledge that Barry was the one who was in the form of Spring inspired dread in Vincent's heart.

 **Hmm… well, fear works best when it originates in the victim. We'll have to stay with your current form, but trust me, you'll have your fun.** Nightmare assured the demonic creature. **Now then Vincent, I have a deal that I believe you cannot refuse.**

"Watch me." Vincent replied. "No."

 **You haven't even heard the terms yet!** Nightmare put on an air of false hurt. **It's rather simple. You are inevitably doomed to insanity, but I can help you escape it, at least for now. Your soul will be mine eventually, and while I'm not feeling particularly patient, I will give you the opportunity to postpone it.**

"Not listening."

 **But you should be. Let's play a game, Vincent.** Nightmare laughed. **Five nights. Me and my minions will attack you for five nights, starting tomorrow night. If you manage to avoid death within the game, we will leave, and you won't be mine to take until your like hits its natural end. If you fail, I get your body and your soul.**

Vincent paused for a moment. This deal could lead to his freedom forever, or at least until he died from something else. On the other hand, he could just lose and wind up being Nightmare's immediately. "What's the catch?"

 **The rules are simple. There are four routes to enter this room. The bed, the closet, the right door, and the left door. I may choose up to four of my minions to attack you, and each one will use a different tactic. If they catch you, you die. You may use the flashlight and the doors to ward off the monsters, although each reacts differently.**

 ** _Seven. Not four._** The big brown Freddy creature added. **_Don't forget the triplets._**

 **Seven.** Nightmare amended grumpily. **You will be punished for interrupting me.**

 ** _Being damned to this purgatory is enough punishment for everything I've done!_** The nightmare Freddy replied.

 **You love the triplets, do you not?**

The bear's eyes widened. **_Don't you touch them!_**

 **I will do as I PLEASE!** Nightmare teleported over to the bear and slashed its face. The bear screamed in pain. Evidently the nightmare creatures could feel pain. **Now be silent. I am not done speaking to our guest.**

The monstrous bear shrank back and mumbled something. Nightmare turned its attention back to Vincent. **Now then, where was I?**

"You were about to surrender." Vincent answered.

 **Yes, that's it. We surrender fully- No we don't.** Nightmare glared at Vincent. **You think you're so funny, don't you?**

Vincent shrugged. "You think you're the most powerful entity ever, I think I'm entitled to make a few jokes."

 **Perhaps so. But should you continue, I may be persuaded to rescind my offer.**

"Right, sorry. I accept."

Nightmare materialized a razor sharp grin. **Glad to hear it. You may have survived tonight, but…**

The demonic creature laughed.

 **Tomorrow is another day.**

* * *

 **I'm not just gonna have Nightmare kill Vincent. That would end the story too soon.**

 **Again, no author's note last time, it would've ruined the tension.**

 **So, the Nightmares. They're people who, like Vincent, have been marked by Nightmare. Either that, or a victim of one of the ones who've been marked. They're all human, or have been at one point. Aaron was the first adult that Vincent killed, while Barry is just a psychopathic little kid. We'll meet all of the Nightmares individually.**

 **When referring to the Puppet using a human guise, I will use Marion. When referring to the Puppet while it's using its normal, spindly-armed form, I will refer to it as the Puppet. Simply because Marion acts slightly different from the Puppet.**


	75. Case Closed?

Vincent woke up to the smell of bacon drifting through the building. It smelled like Chica was preparing breakfast for everyone this morning. That was nice.

What had happened last night? If Vincent remembered properly, Nightmare had challenged him to its own version of the Five Nights challenge. He had accepted, and then Nightmare had let him wake up. He had also seen the nightmarish creatures that Nightmare was going to be sending after him. All of them were terrifying to his child's mind, although his adult side found them to be less scary and more intimidating.

He had also learned something. Lots of things, really. But he couldn't remember them. Something about the Puppet…? Maybe a bit of information on the animatronics? There had certainly been some important things he had learned about two of Nightmare's creatures. But he couldn't remember what it was he learned, or which of those minions it had been.

 _Knock, knock_.

Someone was at his door. "Come in!" He answered, sitting up and stretching. Even considering the nightmares, he had gotten a good night of sleep.

The Puppet came into the room, a tray of food in its hands. "Good morning Vincent! How are you feeling?"

"Fine, thanks." Vincent replied. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a couple times. "Why do you ask?"

"There was a massive pulse of energy at around midnight." The Puppet informed him, putting the tray on Vincent's bed, folding out the legs.

"Is that why I'm getting breakfast in bed?" The human joked.

"That's strange, you're acting more like your adult self again." The Puppet commented. "Has something changed?"

"Not really. I'm just feeling more lucid than normal." Vincent explained. He tapped the side of his head. "I'm always watching, but sometimes I can't exactly control myself."

"That's… interesting." The Puppet remarked. "So, do you know exactly what caused the energy pulse? It originated from a source I couldn't distinguish, but it was in this room."

Vincent was silent for a few moments, then he spoke. "I know what caused it."

"What was it? It was enough energy to kill someone outright."

Vincent hesitated. Should he tell the Puppet…? He made a snap decision. "Do you know what Nightmare is?"

"I get the distinct feeling that you are not speaking of bad dreams."

"I'm not." Vincent confirmed. "Nightmare's a monstrous creature that claims to have existed since the dawn of time. Last night, it tried to kill me."

"Hmm…" The Puppet paused in thought. "This creature must be powerful, to have such a powerful blowback from the spell. What prevented its spell from working?"

"The amulet you made for me." Vincent grabbed the ring. "Apparently it deflected the spell. Then Nightmare tried to drive me insane, but something pulled me out. Did you do that?"

The Puppet shook its head. "I can't get into your dreams, otherwise I would have done so after the first nightmare. What I'm more concerned about, however, is the fact that Nightmare probably won't stop its attack. From what you've told me, Nightmare is extremely strong. It may be able to bypass the amulet, given time."

That made Vincent's blood run cold. Nightmare could bypass the amulet? What was the point in playing its game then? "Then what should we do?"

"Give me a week. It shouldn't be able to get to you in that much time." The Puppet placed its hand on Vincent's shoulder and looked into his eyes. "If there is anything I can do to help you, let me know."

Vincent froze in indecision. He didn't want to drag the Puppet into it, but it might be able to help. Before he came to a decision, the Puppet sat down on the bed next to him and pulled him into a hug. "I'm here to help you."

He looked into its caring eyes, something nagging at the back of his head. He could feel his mind clouding again, but there wasn't much he could do about it. "I'm fine." He said, knowing in the back of his mind that he was not. The Puppet might be able to help, but he would rather handle it on his own. If anything, telling it would simply hinder his chances. Nightmare might choose to alter the rules.

"If you're sure. Just remember, if there's anything bothering you, let me know." The Puppet reassured him. "Fredbear should be able to watch over you today, we changed the schedule a bit."

"Okay." Vincent replied, looking at the tray of food. It was a good breakfast, with several bacon slices, sunny side up eggs, and a piece of toast. To the side of the plate was a tall glass of milk. Vincent picked up the glass and took a sip.

"I'm going to go get ready for today, I'll see you later." The Puppet said, getting up and floating out of his room.

"Bye Puppet." The child replied, eating a piece of bacon. As always, Chica's cooking was amazing.

After finishing his breakfast, Vincent made his way to the main show area. Today was Thursday, right? It didn't really matter. The only time the day of the week affected the schedule was on weekends, because Sundays were closed, and Saturdays had early closing time.

He dropped off the tray in the kitchen, with a thanks to Chica for the food. After a moment of thought, Vincent went to the Prize Corner. He quickly located the drawing supplies and paper, and brought them with him back into the main show area.

As he re-entered the main show area, he was greeted by the sight of Fredbear. The yellow bear was looking around, probably for him.

 _Goldie!_

The sight of the golden animatronic filled Vincent with joy, a joy he hadn't fully experienced since before his fifth birthday. With a cry of happiness, Vincent ran over to the bear and gave him a flying hug tackle. "Fredbear!"

"Woah, what's gotten into you?" The animatronic said with a laugh, catching Vincent and returning the hug. "You seem awfully excited today."

"You're my favorite, Fredbear!" The child informed him.

Fredbear smiled. The animatronics doubtlessly heard things like that daily, but Vincent knew, almost subconsciously, that the animatronics especially tried to make him happy. He had been the one who had given them the opportunity to go almost anywhere they wanted. He had figured out how to grant them freedom. They now considered him a part of their family.

It was a shame that Vincent didn't feel the same way. He wanted to protect the animatronics, and to make up for his past actions, but he wasn't there yet. He told himself he was, but deep down, he knew he was lying to himself.

"What've you got here?" Fredbear asked him, referring to the drawing tools.

"Crayons!" Vincent let go of Fredbear and raised the wax drawing tools in question.

"I see. What do you plan to draw?" The bear queried.

"You and the other animatronics." Vincent answered, putting the papers and crayons on a table. He pulled out a chair and started drawing.

He was so engrossed in this task that he was drawing until it was nearly closing time. He had drawn all of the animatronics, taking his time to draw them in painstaking detail. Down to the correct eye colors for all of the animalistic characters. The Puppet was the tallest, by a staggering margin. Its long limbs making its height the greatest.

The other animatronics weren't exactly short though. Freddy was the tallest of the others, then Bonnie and Chica. Foxy was a good bit taller than Fredbear, who was slightly taller than Spring. All of the Toy animatronics were just barely shorter than Spring, with Theodore being the tallest, then Tia and Ben. Vix was shorter than all of them, with BB being the absolute smallest animatronic.

There was one more that he had drawn, although he didn't remember drawing it. It was a figure that was behind all of the others, almost unnoticeable unless you were the one who drew it. It matched the same theme as all of the others, being a humanoid animal. The biggest difference lay in the eyes. They were a blood red, not just the iris like Bonnie, but the sclera as well. The center of its eyes was a white ring with absolute darkness in the exact center.

The animatronic seemed bearlike, akin to Fredbear, but it was a black that shouldn't have been obtainable with crayons on paper. In fact, it was more reminiscent of the shadowy form that Shane and Sean had.

 **You like my representation of myself? The others won't see it at all. Not until I let them.** Nightmare laughed. **I would have had you draw my normal form, but that's not very artistic. A simple blob with eyes would've sufficed at that point. But now you've drawn a form for me that is recognizable.**

"What do you want Nightmare?" Vincent muttered.

 **I'll be honest, waiting for you to fall asleep is boring. I've been watching through your eyes for a good hour now.** Nightmare sent him a mental shrug. **Last night was draining, as they will be from here on out. Attacking your mind is more difficult than it seems. By the way, Fredbear's about to warn you to hide. There are some people coming who aren't exactly friendly.**

"Why would you help me?" Vincent asked.

Before the immortal entity could answer, Fredbear walked past, whispering to the child. "Vincent, hide."

Vincent looked up at Fredbear, then back at his drawing. Grabbing the paper, he walked out of the room and hid around the corner of the doorway to the Prize Corner. He carefully kept a line of sight to the main entrance to the pizzeria, while being invisible to the newcomers.

Nightmare was right, they didn't look friendly. Both of them wore suits, one pinstriped and the other plain. One of the two men had a fedora on his head. Probably trying to look fancy. It actually made him look like he was trying too hard.

"Hello sirs! Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! Can I help you today?" Fredbear asked the two men.

Both of the newcomers looked at Fredbear in surprise. They had heard that there were some robots in the place that seemed almost alive, but that two of the mascots were people in suits. They had no idea which was which. The man in the pinstriped suit stepped forward and clasped his hands together. "My associate and I wanted to know if you or anyone you work with had heard of Vincent Tollini."

"I heard about that person. Apparently he was some sort of myth on the streets. Why do you ask?" Fredbear feigned ignorance.

Fedora stepped forward. "We're with the FBI. Vincent Tollini is no myth, but a wanted murderer. If you know his whereabouts, or know someone who might know where he can be found, please let us know."

"Of course. I would always be glad to help." Fredbear assured them. "We're nearing closing time, but if you two want, I can get you Gentlemen some pizza."

The two men looked at each other, then Pinstripe shook his head. "We need to be going. Got leads to follow." He took a card out of his pocket. "If you learn anything, call this number."

Fredbear took the card, examining it closely. "Yes sirs."

"Well, we'll be off then." Fedora said. "Again, let us know if you learn anything."

With that, both of the men turned around and left, not knowing that the bear they thought they had fooled knew every bit of their plan. Fredbear made his way over to the Prize Corner and tore the card in half. "Alright, we're safe."

"Why'd you lie to them?" Vincent asked. The men had seemed slightly suspicious, but they were with the FBI. Fredbear could get in trouble for lying to them.

"Those men weren't FBI." Fredbear informed him.

"How do you know?" Vincent was more curious than worried. He trusted Fredbear's word, but he wanted to know how the bear knew.

"One, neither of them showed me their badge." The animatronic counted it off on his fingers. "Two, Vincent Tollini is officially missing. There's no reason for them to restart the investigation now. Three, Telepathy is more than just communication. I can use it to see their thoughts, effectively reading their minds. Neither of them worked for any government."

"Then who were they?"

"Members of a gang that you were in." Fredbear looked him square in the eye as he revealed that he had been in Vincent's memory. "People that go by the title Gentleman."

Vincent felt dread growing.

"Those men worked for Antonio Veron the second."

* * *

 **As Fredbear stated, he can read minds. In addition to this, he can forcibly drive people insane, cause crippling headaches, and tamper with memories. Now you can understand why Vincent felt threatened.**

 **Fredbear is NOT the voice that has been keeping Vincent sane.**

 **Antonio "Tony" Veron is the name of the man who hired Vincent. As stated by Franklin, the man's son is currently running his whole criminal empire. I finally came up with a name for them, although it's not exactly creative. Veron's Gentlemen. You may now laugh at my failure.**


	76. Old Voices, New Faces

As expected, Vincent's dreams took him to the room that Nightmare used as its base of operations. It wasn't quite midnight, which Vincent instinctively knew was when the game would begin.

 ** _It's just us three tonight, right?_**

 ** _Only us two if he manages to keep his focus._**

 ** _Vince has ADHD. He might just forget about the triplets altogether._**

 ** _Frankly, I'm hoping he doesn't forget about them. I would hate to do something so horrible again…_**

 ** _We all know you didn't mean it Paul. Even they know you didn't mean to do it. We've all forgiven you now._**

 ** _I know… but…_**

 ** _I understand. Don't stress yourself too much. Being here is punishment enough for everything we've done._**

 ** _He's here._**

For a couple of seconds, there was absolute silence. Vincent pondered what he had heard, but he didn't know if he was supposed to hear it. With a shrug, he decided it didn't matter.

"Alright Nightmare, I've got a few questions for you." Vincent announced, knowing that Nightmare could hear him.

 **Fire away.** Nightmare replied, amused with Vincent's straightforward attitude.

"First: who am I hearing every time I enter this room?" Vincent needed to know this one in particular.

 **It's rather simple. You aren't the only one stuck in this realm. I told you before there are thirteen souls that I utilize to empower myself. The ones you hear are those thirteen souls. They like to think their conversations are private, but they never are.** Nightmare laughed. **It's rather amusing. They plot their revenge, their escape, their rebellion. Yet they never realize that I can hear every word they say, and many they don't.**

That actually made a lot of sense. "Okay, now why did you warn me about the two Gentlemen, and how did you know?"

 **Antonio Veron and his son seem to attract the weakest minded people, like moths to a flame. Naturally, these people are easier to mark. Veron's Gentlemen are mostly men and women who have the right mindset to be murderers. There are a few exceptions, but by and large, they are criminals with blood on their hands.** Nightmare gave a psychic shrug. **As for how I knew, detecting marked ones is extremely easy. Not to mention the fact that they basically transmitted their thoughts on a psychic level. That's how Fredbear knew to hide you.**

"But why warn me?" That was the part that was hardest to understand.

 **I like to protect my wagers. I gain far more from you losing the game than if you were to be killed.** Nightmare manifested its shadowy form in front of him.

"Not to mention the fact that it makes you look good." Vincent muttered.

 **Too right.** Nightmare laughed, the demonic sound echoing through the building. **You'd best get ready, the Nightmares are on their way starting…**

A grandfather clock in the hallway chimed midnight.

 **Now. Have fun!** Nightmare laughed again, dissipating into the shadows in the room. Vincent got off of the bed, wondering exactly how it was an avenue for the Nightmares to enter his room.

 _Get the flashlight._

Almost instinctively, he grabbed the flashlight off of the bedside table. If what he had learned was accurate, all of the Nightmares had sensitive eyesight. The flashlight should be able to help him ward them off.

The human walked over to the closet and looked inside. There was nothing there, but he knew that there would be something there eventually. Maybe later in the night, or a later night.

He whirled around. There was a flash of movement on his bed as something crawled off of it, the small creature rushed under the bed. That answered one question. Apparently, under the bed was somewhere the monsters could come from. It made sense, in a childish way.

But then, this place was meant to scare a childish mind. Just like the monster in the closet, and the creature behind the door. Something hiding under the bed would terrify a child's mind.

Vincent got the distinct feeling that he should be checking the doors. He quickly walked over to the left door and shined his flashlight.

Something at the end of the hallway moved, glowing blue eyes sliding around the corner.

 ** _Well, he's got a flashlight._**

 ** _Maybe he'll be able to win._**

 ** _Hopefully._**

One of those two voices sounded familiar. Actually, both sounded familiar, but one of them was more recent in his memory, while the other was something he recalled hearing a long time ago.

 _Check the bed._

Vincent walked away from the door and shined his light on the bed. This time, there were two creatures that clambered off of the bed. He got a better look this time. Both creatures were mechanical, like the Nightmares he had seen last night. Although these were far smaller. Both of them were brown in color, with massive tears in what seemed to be animatronic suits. The eyes of the small creatures were nothing more than glowing white orbs in dark sockets.

He mused on the fact that the monsters seemed to be animatronics. It made sense, with the fact that Nightmare had identified that he was afraid of the animatronics that he called his family.

Were the little creatures associated with the nightmarish Freddy creature that had spoken out against Nightmare? It seemed a definite possibility. Especially since a similar creature had crawled out of its body.

 _Right door._

The human snapped out of his thoughts and walked over to the right door, putting his ear up to it. To his surprise, there was a heavy breathing sound.

Immediately, Vincent slammed the door closed. Whatever was out there, he wasn't letting it get in.

But then, if it was one of the nightmarish animatronics, wouldn't it be able to just push the door open? Those things were massive, and they doubtless had enough physical power to just shove the door gaping wide. In fact, they should be able to just break the door down.

In a child's mind, however, the rules were different, right? A child would see closing the door as a way to keep the monster out, regardless of how big the monster was.

With a creak, he slowly pushed the door back open. There was no sound this time. He cautiously flashed his flashlight down the hallway, revealing two red lights at the end of the hall. They slid behind the corner as soon as the light hit them.

 ** _He understands the rules! Thank god!_**

 ** _Good._**

 ** _Vince was a nice guy. Well, at least not like the thugs. He was polite and witty._**

 ** _Why do I care?_**

 ** _Because he doesn't deserve to lose to Nightmare. We should try to help him._**

 ** _Nobody deserves to lose to Nightmare_**

There were those voices again. Who were they? He remembered them. He knew who they were at one point, but he couldn't place one of them. One was from last night, but the other one was more feminine, and he didn't know who it was.

After checking the bed again to ward off the little creatures, he walked over to the left door and listened. After a moment, he flashed his flashlight.

 ** _Augh! God! That hurts!_** The monster that was waiting there stumbled back a couple steps, covering its luminous blue eyes.

"Wah!" Vincent cried out, stumbling backwards. This… thing, was a faded blue color. It was certainly supposed to be a twisted version of Bonnie, with its rabbit ears and blue bowtie. The jaw was squarer than the old Bonnie model though, and it had mechanical eyes in its head, with the centers being the glowing blue that Vincent had been using to identify it. The suit was torn up, but not excessively so. As with anything Nightmare made, it had hundreds of teeth in its mouth and razor sharp claws on its hands.

 ** _Do you have ANY idea how much that stings?_** The creature rubbed its eyes, then glared angrily at Vincent. **_I'm beginning to think that maybe I should just let Nightmare have you._**

"Please no!" The human whimpered. The first night and he had already screwed up!

The creature's expressive eyes softened. **_I almost forgot that you're just a kid right now. I'm sorry. I didn't want to lash out._**

"Y-you're not going to kill me?" This was a surprise to Vincent, he had thought that all of the Nightmares were killers, or victims of them. None of them should hold any love for him.

 ** _No. I wanted to for the first, say, ten years of my existence here. Now revenge doesn't sound so sweet._** The robot shrugged.

"Aaron?" Vincent asked in surprise. He recalled now how Nightmare had told him that Aaron was the first one he killed.

The creature grinned. **_Aaron Shill, at your service. None of us wanted this. Well, Barry did, but he's literally insane. So's the new guy, but he was insane in the mind, not in the soul. There's a noticeable difference._**

"So… do I not have to play the game?"

 ** _Not quite. Nightmare can take over whenever it wants. You need to focus and stay alive, otherwise, we might be forced to kill you._** Aaron shrugged. **_I'd rather not be forced to kill you. You've changed from the person who killed me. That was a creature of Nightmare._**

"You forgive me?" Vincent asked hopefully.

 ** _Yeah, I guess so. Mostly I just don't like Nightmare._** Aaron told him. **_I'd better go. Check your bed, and Vi should be at the other door soon._**

The towering rabbit walked off, waving to Vincent as it left. "Wait! Why were you sent after me back then?"

Aaron paused. **_I don't think I should be the one to tell you that._** With that, the spirit walked around the corner, out of Vincent's sight.

"What did he mean by that…?" Vincent wondered aloud, before going to shine his flashlight on the bed. Again, there were two of the little creatures. Vincent had decided to dub them 'Freddles', just for the heck of it. He wasn't certain that they were linked to the Freddy monster, but it was better to give them a nickname now.

 ** _Well, I wasn't forced to kill him._**

 ** _That's great! Maybe Nightmare isn't paying attention._**

 ** _We can hope._**

Vincent slowly crept over to the right door and listened. There was the sound of breathing, but he decided not to close the door this time. "Hello?"

 ** _Hello Vincent!_** The creature on the other side of the door replied. She sounded like she expected Vincent to recognize her.

The human wracked his brain. Where had he heard that voice before? "I feel like I should know you…"

A clawed hand gently pushed the door open, revealing a nightmarish version of Chica. She had three rows of teeth, all of them razor sharp, and her jaw was almost entirely disconnected from the top of her head. Two warmly glowing red eyes were in her head, not the same blood red as Nightmare's eyes, but a pleasant scarlet. On her shoulder was a cupcake, with similar teeth to the Nightmares. The cupcake's eyes were orange, but not in the same alive way as the other Nightmares. **_Does this ring a bell?_** Her voice changed "Aww c'mon! I was so close!"

"Violet Blaze?" Vincent muttered. She had been the only person to have ever gotten close to defeating him in single combat. Of course, it had been a sparring match, simply to test their skills, but Vi had gotten astonishingly close to winning.

Violet had been a muscular woman, being broad shouldered and quite tall. Vincent was taller than she was, but only barely. The woman had enjoyed the challenge of combat, but killing people wasn't something she wanted to do. She and her twin sister had been a tag team, of the brains and brawn type. While Violet had been the straightforward and stronger sister, Azure had been willing to utilize anything to gain an advantage.

 ** _You remember!_** Violet exclaimed. **_I was worried you wouldn't._** The massive robot picked Vincent up, and pulled him into a hug. **_And aren't you just the cutest thing!_**

"Can't-" Vincent struggled, gasping for breath. "-Breathe!"

 ** _Oh! I'm sorry! I forget how strong we are now._** Violet loosened the hug enough for Vincent to breathe. ** _The triplets don't have to breathe anymore, so I sometimes forget that living people do._**

"Not that I'm complaining, but why are you hugging me?" Vincent asked, his voice slightly muffled.

The robot set him down. **_Sorry, I got carried away. I always wanted to have kids of my own, but I died before I could. I just can't help myself._**

"You must really have hated me, huh…" Vincent muttered, remembering the things he had done.

 ** _I didn't know about the pizzeria incidents until after you died. Now that I know Nightmare was screwing with your mind, I don't really blame you._** Violet explained. **_Nightmare has made all of us kill people. At least you've made amends with some of your victims._**

"Yeah…" Vincent replied, thinking. "What exactly killed you?"

 ** _It was an accident, really._** Violet muttered. **_I don't think I should be the one to tell you._**

"Then who should I ask?" Vincent really wanted to have his answers, but they probably weren't important.

 ** _You'll probably meet him tomorrow night._** Violet told him. **_Be careful from here on out. Nightmare might be watching._** The creature started lumbering back down the hallway.

"Bye Vi." Vincent said, waving. He returned to his room and shined his light on the bed again. Two creatures scuttled off of the covers and under the bed.

Vincent sighed. The excitement was over now, and he was beginning to grow bored. He was trying his best to remain focused, but he just couldn't. He could feel his focus slowly slipping away as he tried to remember to check the doors and shine his flashlight on the bed.

The left door creaked open.

"Aaron?" Vincent asked cautiously.

 **Not this time.** The large rabbit replied. Its eyes weren't the normal blue, but a blood red that belonged to Nightmare. **This time, I'm the one behind your door.**

 **Goodbye Vincent~!** The monstrous creature lunged forward, jaws snapping.

 _Beep, Beep, Beep_

Nightmare froze. **You survived. Saved by the bell. No matter, we have four more nights of fun.**

 **Tomorrow is another day.**

* * *

 **My writing/uploading schedule has gone out the window. Some people have an easier time writing in summer, but I don't.**

 **I'm going to refer to the Nightmares as the people who they are, or were. Technically, they're all OCs, but screw that. I'm just giving personality to the characters.**


	77. Art

**What are you drawing this time?**

Vincent rolled his eyes. Nightmare was slightly irritated after its minions refused to kill him. It had been completely dormant until just now, likely because it had needed to use its power to punish the Nightmares. It seemed to care more about disciplining the spirits under its control than catching Vincent. Probably because it had four more nights to do so.

"I've decided to draw the Nightmares." Vincent replied after a while. "Starting with Aaron."

 **You're missing the claws and teeth.** Nightmare stated, confused.

"I know." The human answered. "I'm drawing them as they would be if they were animatronics and you hadn't influenced their form."

 **But they wouldn't be animatronics if I hadn't influenced their form.** Nightmare said flatly. **It makes no sense to me.**

"Well, you're always saying humans are unique." Vincent retorted, continuing to draw a faded blue rabbit. "Here's another instance of that, I guess."

 **Human imagination is bizarre.** Nightmare said, going silent.

"Not as bizarre as you…" Vincent muttered with a shrug. He went back to drawing Aaron. He hadn't even gotten a good look at the guy when he was alive the first time, and it was unlikely he would see his human form ever. So the closest he could get was the animatronic form that Aaron was forced into.

After all, he basically owed Aaron. He had killed the poor man.

The rabbit was vaguely reminiscent of Bonnie, but taller and more imposing, although not nearly as imposing or intimidating as the nightmarish version. The eyes were a pleasant blue, brighter than the fur color, and almost indigo in color. The big rabbit had a red bowtie, and a friendly, yet confident, smile on his face.

There were also two blood red eyes looking over the rabbit's shoulder. Somehow, Nightmare managed to sneak into everything Vincent tried to draw. It didn't even seem intentional this time. Nightmare was dormant right now, but it seemed to influence Vincent's actions nonetheless.

Finishing the drawing with a flourish, Vincent started on a new drawing, this time attempting to draw Violet. He drew her more muscular than Chica, seeing as the woman had been bulky in life. Like with Aaron, he was drawing the animatronic form, the one that he could remember. He gave her the same warm scarlet eyes and kind smile that she had worn whilst in the nightmare. Vincent hesitated to draw the cupcake, then decided not to. It wasn't really a part of her. It was like a doll, without any real personality or importance.

Again, Nightmare managed to sneak its presence into the drawing. There was a pair of red eyes hidden just over Violet's shoulder.

 **Where's the cupcake?** Nightmare spoke up.

"It's not important." Vincent answered, continuing his drawing.

 **But it is a part of her appearance.** Nightmare protested. **And though it lacks its own personality, she can manipulate it.**

"That's exactly why I'm not drawing it. It's not important, it's just an extension of her will." Vincent explained to the immortal entity. "Anyways, you only want me to draw it because you made it."

 **Tch, was it that obvious?** Nightmare taunted, laughing. Its communication was more like a voice now, instead of simply being an alien presence. **I suppose I should be more subtle, but subtlety isn't as useful in some situations.**

"You have no idea…" Vincent muttered, tuning Nightmare out. He couldn't truly ignore the creature, but he could disregard what it said. Most of the time it just boasted or tried to mess with him.

After finishing the drawing, Vincent stacked the two with the one he made the previous day, then got up from the table. It was lunch time, and Chica had told him to stop by the kitchen to get something to eat.

Looking around to make sure that nobody saw him, Vincent slipped into the kitchen. The animatronics had a short period at 12:00 where they weren't expected to be onstage or wandering around. Usually they used this time to prepare for the lunch rush, from preparing new toys for the Prize Corner to cooking new pizzas in the kitchen.

"Hello Vincent!~ Are you here for lunch?" Chica greeted, prepping a pizza for later.

"Yep!" The human replied, climbing up onto a stool. He watched as Chica finished up the pizza she was working on and started a new one.

"What do you want on your pizza?" The chicken asked, spreading the dough out.

"Pepperoni's good." Vincent answered happily.

"Alrighty then!" Chica said with a smile. "So what've you been up to?"

"Drawing." The child answered, showing Chica the picture he drew of the gang. He didn't want to explain the two others, it would raise questions that would be awkward to answer. Only the Puppet knew about Nightmare, and that was one person too many.

Chica put the finishing touches on the pizza and popped it in the oven, then walked over to Vincent and looked at the drawing. For something made in crayons, it was incredibly detailed. "Wow, this is really good."

"'s just a drawing." Vincent muttered, sure that she was just trying to make him feel good.

"Seriously, this is amazing." Chica told him, scanning the drawing again. Her eyes couldn't pick up Nightmare, but they seemed to absorb every detail. "You've managed to get every detail."

The timer dinged, and Chica stepped over to the oven and pulled the pizzas out. "Here you go sweetie~."

"Thanks Chica." Vincent said with a smile, setting the pizza down on the counter. It wasn't a full sized pizza, but it was enough to feed him.

"You should go see Theodore. He likes to paint in his free time, maybe he'd be willing to give you access to his drawing tools." Chica told him with a nod. "The toys don't have to perform this afternoon, so that would be a good time."

"Okay then." Vincent replied, starting in on his pizza. As always, Chica's cooking was superb. It was just a little too hot to touch at first, but after a moment of waiting, it was cool enough to eat.

Chica took another pizza out of the oven, then turned to Vincent. "I need to get back onstage. I'll see you later Vincent."

"See you later." The human replied, continuing to eat his pizza. After finishing, he hopped off the stool and put the plate in the sink. One of the animatronics had dishwashing duty every day, today it was probably Ben. Vincent had been in the rotation before the shadows had pulled their prank, but he very seriously doubted that he still was.

He washed his hands and grabbed his drawings. Hopefully Theo would like them, or at least the one that Vincent intended to show him. Explaining the other two would be complicated. He could just say that they were redesigns, but both of the Nightmares looked markedly different from the normal animatronics.

Vincent slipped out of the kitchen, carefully making sure that none of the partygoers spotted him. It would probably raise many unwanted questions if someone spotted a five year-old slipping out of the staff only area. Of course, most of the tricks Vincent knew to stealth were habitual now, meaning that his youthened state didn't hinder his ability to sneak.

Not that sneaking was really necessary. Once the shows started, everyone was enthralled with the animatronics onstage. It was magical, seeing people of all ages watching the same show and laughing at the same jokes.

After watching for a moment, Vincent continued to the toy stage. He had seen the shows so many times, but they were still entertaining. Just another example of the incredibly clever planning skills that Mike had. Mike was a font of good ideas, no matter what Vincent and Fritz said.

Slipping under the bar that marked the toy stage as closed for the time being, Vincent walked up to the stage. Ben and Tia were playing one of the few arcade games in the room, it was some sort of fighting game.

"Oh C'mon! How'd you do that?!" Ben cried out, quite obviously upset about something.

"It's not my fault you can't block properly." Tia retorted, sticking her tongue out at the blue rabbit. "Anyone could slip past your flimsy guard."

"I demand a rematch!" Ben declared, pointing up to the air. At this, Vincent burst out into sniggers, causing both of the animatronics to whirl around.

"Umm…" Ben started, eyes wide. "Hi…?"

Vincent realized suddenly that the toys hadn't yet seen him after the transformation. "Wow! The animatronics play video games, and argue with one another!" Vincent exclaimed, giggling hysterically. This was incredibly funny.

"Uh…" Ben began panicking. "You shouldn't be back here. You need to go back to your parents."

"My parents haven't been alive for forty five years." Vincent replied, knowing that this would simply confuse the poor rabbit further.

"What." As Vincent predicted, this completely confused the poor animatronic. "How is that possible?!"

At this point, Tia smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Ben, its Vincent."

"But that's impossible! Vincent's an adult, and this kid is-" Ben began, only to get cut off.

"He has the same eyes, the same hair, and the same body structure." Tia listed. "Not to mention the fact that, although we haven't seen him, the brothers turned him into a little kid. Chica told us about this."

"Oh." Ben seemed embarrassed. "Uh, sorry." He scratched the back of his head. "I didn't think about that."

Vincent burst into laughter. "The look on your face!"

"Hey, it was an honest mistake!" Ben protested.

Tia snickered. "It was pretty funny. The way you freaked out when you saw Vince."

"You're never gonna let this go, are you?" Ben asked with a sigh.

"Nope!" Came the chicken's answer.

"Well, I could always tell everyone about that time you got stuck in the air vent." Ben said slyly.

"Don't you dare!" Tia exclaimed, her eyes widening.

"Why not? It was hilarious!" Ben taunted.

"What exactly are you talking about?" Vincent asked. As far as he knew, none of the animatronics had gotten stuck in the air vents at the current location. But then, there was no way he could know if they had been quiet.

"At the old location, when Jeremy was the night guard." Ben explained. "Tia was trying to go through the vents too fast, and wound up getting stuck on the corner. I had to go around and get her out before anyone noticed."

"'s not my fault they made my thighs the size of watermelons…" The chicken muttered. "Anyways, you tell anyone about that, and I'll let the world know that you freaked out the first time you looked in a mirror!"

"I thought I was turned into a girl!" Ben protested.

In moments, the duo had broken down into basic squabbles, countering each threat with another. It seemed they both had millions of embarrassing moments to threaten each other with. Vincent rolled his eyes and walked off, hoping that the two would resolve their little argument by the time their break ended.

"Those two are always squabbling, aren't they?"

Vincent looked up to see Theodore standing there and shaking his head. "I would swear those two were siblings in life…" The bear muttered, probably not intending for Vincent to hear.

"They were. Adopted, though." Vincent answered, then froze. Wait, how had he known that? Was it something Nightmare had told him? It seemed likely. Nightmare knew a lot of things, and liked to flaunt its knowledge. Of course, Vincent never fully remembered what the demonic creature said, especially after waking up.

"Really? That's interesting. Not a surprise, but interesting nonetheless." Theodore mused. "It would explain their behavior towards one another, as well as the fact that Tia occasionally says something in Spanish, which Ben will take a few moments to process. As if he understands without the translator, but not as easily as Tia."

"Huh." Vincent replied, only partially understanding. He stood there for a moment and tried to remember why he came to the toy area in the first place. "Oh! Chica wanted me to show you this." Vincent reached up and handed Theodore the drawing.

Theodore's blue eyes scanned the paper. "Wow. This is impressive. How long did it take?"

"Just one day." Vincent answered.

"This is very, very good." The bear muttered. "Where did you learn to draw like this?"

"I didn't learn from anyone else. I just practiced."

The animatronic gave a low whistle in appreciation. "That's amazing. You've got an amazing amount of talent, especially for someone who was never trained." The bear looked at him. "How would you like to use some real drawing tools?"

"Really?" Vincent asked hopefully.

"Come with me." Theodore told him, walking to the backstage room. He pulled the door open to reveal a room divided into three sections. Two of them were messy, like a typical teenager's room, while the third was absolutely spotless and orderly. Theodore led him to the clean third of the room and opened a trunk that was against the wall. "Ah, here we are." The bear reached in and pulled out a box with multiple drawers on it. "This should have just about everything you need."

Vincent opened the box. Within it were all manner of drawing tools. He closed the box again and looked up at Theodore with a smile on his face. "Thanks Teddy."

* * *

 **Some bonding time with Vincent and the Toy Animatronics.**

 **I just want to say thank you to everyone who's reading this. I've received some really uplifting and supportive reviews, and I'm honestly surprised with how many people like my story.**

 **I know that I haven't had humor be a predominant theme in recent chapters, and that might be a persistent theme for the rest of the story. I'll make sure to have some chapters that are less serious, like this one, but I make no promises.**

 **Also, Nightmare's so full of itself.**


	78. The Deal

**_He drew pictures of us!_**

 ** _Really?_**

 ** _That's so sweet!_**

 ** _Why did he do that?_**

 ** _I don't know, it's not like we asked him to. Nightmare was furious though._**

 ** _Then it was a good thing he decided to do it._**

 ** _Will he draw me and the triplets?_**

 ** _'Scuse me?_**

 ** _And Connor._**

 ** _Thank you._**

 ** _I have no idea, but he might. He seems to enjoy drawing, and he just received some drawing tools._**

 ** _Was Nightmare watching him today?_**

 ** _Only for an hour. Big Black and Ugly seemed a bit exhausted. I think it's getting old._**

 ** _Thank you Connor, for insulting our captor._**

 ** _Hey, I speak my mind._**

 ** _You also get the rest of us in trouble, you blabber mouth. Are the others awake yet?_**

 ** _They're resting. Newbie's still getting adjusted, and the old man spends most of his time sleeping anyways. Your sister and her boyfriend are gonna be up soon, but Mister Missus is up now._**

 ** _Connor, I swear to god, if you call people names, you WILL wind up getting your rear end handed to you._**

 ** _Hasn't happened yet._**

 ** _Yes, it has._**

 ** _Stop talking. He's here._**

Well, that was longer than usual. Maybe he should just not move whenever he entered this dark world. It could lead to more communication between the Nightmares. It usually helped him a little bit when he paid attention to their conversations. Of course, he remembered little of what happens during the nights, but he could remember the Nightmares for certain, even if he couldn't remember what Nightmare itself said.

 **Enjoying their banter?**

"And you had to ruin the moment. Thanks Nightmare." Vincent muttered. "So, do you ever punish them for their insults?"

 **When they insult each other, it's hilarious.** Nightmare informed him. **Especially when they were foes in life.**

"Yes, but what about when they insult you?" This was the issue that Vincent wanted Nightmare to answer. If it made the creature uncomfortable, all the better.

 **All fun and games Vincent. They call me old, I call them too young to understand the true nature of the universe.** Nightmare performed its special kind of shrug.

"Uh huh." Vincent seriously doubted this answer. "So what are you here for?"

 **Why Vincent, can't I visit my companions?** Nightmare asked in mock hurt. **I cannot simply have a jovial time with my friends?**

"You have no friends." Vincent stated flatly.

 **Too right.** Nightmare confirmed.

"So what do you want with me?" The human asked again.

 **Well, you seemed to be having difficulty with last night, or at least in the last two hours.** Nightmare began.

"What're you getting at?" Vincent trusted Nightmare as far as he could throw it. Considering his current state and the fact that Nightmare was ethereal, that was probably nowhere. Or possibly backwards.

 **I'm offering you a way to decrease the amount of time you need to worry about the Nightmares each night.** The dark creature answered.

"I'm listening." This intrigued Vincent. A way to make nights shorter?

 **Barry's been dying for a chance to attack you, even if it doesn't result in your defeat. In order to accommodate him, you can play a game before twelve each night in order to decrease the amount of time you need to ward off my minions.** Nightmare explained. **You win, two hours are taken off the beginning of the night. You lose, and Barry gets to give you a little scare.**

"What's the catch?" There was always something that made the deal not quite worth it.

 **Catch? Lemme see…** Nightmare paused as if in thought **Catch… catch… OH! I think I know what you're talking about. Yes. Those hours need to go somewhere, so in exchange, you must do two extra nights.**

That hardly seemed fair, but then, it wasn't supposed to be. "Really."

 **Oh yes. You would take two hours off of every future night if you win the game. That would be the only possible way for you to remain focused. But those hours must go somewhere, so you have two more nights than otherwise. Is this not fair?** Nightmare asked innocently.

Vincent knew that something was off, but it could be the only way for him to win. Otherwise, his soul and body would belong to Nightmare. He hesitated a few moments, then came to his decision. "I agree."

A sharp toothed grin appeared out of nowhere, followed shortly by a pair of red eyes and a shadowy cloud. It was extremely creepy, like the Cheshire cat in reverse. **Well? What are you waiting for? Let's have a little fun with Plushtrap.**

The entire room became cloaked in shadow, as if Nightmare had spread its ethereal form over the walls and ceiling, removing Vincent's ability to see. After an indeterminate amount of time, the darkness faded, revealing a long hallway ending in a chair. Above the chair was a window, through which the moon shone. There were two doorways on either side, with rooms of indeterminate sized rooms on the other side of the empty doorframes. On the floor directly in front of Vincent was an X.

It was the thing that was on the chair that made Vincent worried.

The thing was short, child sized really. But then, so was he. It was an animatronic like the rest of the Nightmares, but it wasn't a twisted parody of the animatronics that Vincent considered his family.

No, this was worse.

Plushtrap, Nightmare had called it. Vincent didn't have any difficulty figuring out why it had chosen that name.

It was a small rabbit, with sickly green yellow fur. Its eyes were strangely colorless. Not in the manner that the Puppet's were, but simply because this creature had no irises. The eyes were simply white sclera with holes in the middle. The hands lacked the signature claws that all of Nightmare's creations had, and the mouth had needle teeth instead of the massive fangs that the other Nightmares had.

This little monster was quite obviously a parody of Spring.

With a start, Vincent realized that he was holding the flashlight, and that it was the only reason he could see. Hesitantly, Vincent clicked it off. The room was plunged into near complete darkness, with the only thing visible being the window in the wall in front of him. There was the barely audible sound of furry feet stepping around on carpet.

Ordinarily, such a sound wouldn't even be audible, but 'Plushtrap' wasn't very stealthy. In fact, it seemed distinctly the opposite.

After several seconds of waiting, Vincent clicked the flashlight on, revealing the rabbit on the ground in front of the chair, sitting in a position that made it seem dead, or at least deactivated. Vincent didn't want to give it another chance to move closer, but there weren't any other options, so he clicked his flashlight off again.

The darkness was oppressive, keeping Vincent worrying. Was the rabbit coming closer? Was it trying to psyche him out? Maybe the animatronic was just sitting in the same place and waiting for the prime opportunity to strike.

 _Now._

He whipped the flashlight up and clicked it on. Plushtrap was seated right in front of him, on top of the X taped on the floor.

 **Well, you won the first game. That's good. For you, anyways.** Nightmare spoke from everywhere at once, its voice seeming to have no source. **On to the main event then.**

The room began to spin, faster and faster until the walls blurred into nothingness and Vincent had to close his eyes to avoid getting dizzy. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the room that he always wound up in when he went to sleep.

"Why do you always have to be so dramatic Nightmare…?" Vincent murmured, looking around. It seemed that he had been sitting there with his eyes closed for longer than he thought. The clock listed 2:00, which meant that it was indeed two hours later.

"Let the game begin, I guess." The human muttered, shining his flashlight around the room. As per usual, the room was more or less empty. Vincent got the distinct feeling that there were creatures roaming the halls outside.

Immediately, Vincent ran over to the left door and listened. There was the sound of footsteps, but none of the telltale breathing.

"Aaron?" Vincent asked cautiously. The blue rabbit usually showed up at this door, although he had warned Vincent to be careful. Nightmare could very easily take over the minds of the Nightmares, although it seemed like it couldn't do so after the Nightmares left their starting positions. Of course, Nightmare could probably force them back to their starting positions.

 ** _Yeah, I'm here._**

Vincent sighed in relief. When Nightmare controlled its minions their voices changed. That was certainly Aaron. "I'm gonna shine my flashlight. Cover your eyes."

He clicked the flashlight on. There was the rabbit, with his faded blue fur and red bowtie. He was covering his indigo eyes with his clawed hands. After Vincent lowered the flashlight beam, Aaron peeked out from behind his hands. **_I got a question for you kid._**

"Despite what appearances may lead you to believe, I'm a fifty year old man." Vincent corrected.

 ** _Yeah, and if I was still alive, I would be almost ninety._** The large machine retorted. **_Anyways, I wanted to know why you drew us._**

The human shrugged. "I don't really know. It just… felt right. Not to mention the fact that it seemed to irritate Nightmare."

Aaron grinned, his expressive eyes allowing him to turn his terrifying face into something more friendly. **_And that's the most important part of all, right?_**

"Of course." Vincent replied with a laugh. After a couple moments of laughter, Vincent wound down. "Nightmare's gonna kill us for that."

 ** _He can try._** Aaron said with a shrug. **_I gotta go. See ya later kid._**

"Later Aaron." Vincent waved, watching the blue rabbit walk back down the hallway. With a smile on his face, Vincent walked back to the middle of the room and paused. He was forgetting something…

Vincent whirled around and shone his flashlight on the bed. Unlike every previous time, there were three of the small creatures sitting on the bed. They all had rips and tears on their bodies, some of them extensively so. Vincent slowly backed up as the middle Freddle looked straight into his eyes.

The small creature screamed a battle cry, and all three of the little monsters launched themselves at him.

"Agh!" Vincent cried out, ducking between the Freddles. One of them grabbed onto his hair and swung its legs around, sitting on his shoulders. The other two landed on the floor, only to launch themselves at his legs, knocking him to the ground. Vincent struggled, trying to push the creatures off. He then froze as they continued their assault, only then realizing what the battle cry had been.

 ** _Tickle Fight!_**

Vincent burst into uncontrollable laughter as the small creatures 'attacked' him. He couldn't breathe, but this was so much fun. The Freddles had soft paws, unlike the other nightmare creatures, and that meant that they could tickle Vincent without actually hurting him.

 ** _Alright you three, let him go. He needs to breathe, after all._** A deep voice said from the bed.

 ** _Aww._** The trio complained, but all three of them climbed off of Vincent and returned to the bed.

 ** _Sorry Vincent, but usually the person in the room freaks out and screams._** The voice apologized. ** _You have no idea how much it hurts their ears. So you can probably understand how lonely they've been without any other children to play with. Barry hardly counts. There's some serious problems with that kid._**

The human wiped tears from his eyes and took a gasping breath of air. "That was fun." Vincent gasped, giggling still. He looked up at the bed to see a towering creature, although this one was familiar to him. Its orange eyes looked at Vincent in amusement. The brown fur was torn in many places, most likely due to the bear's rebellion against Nightmare.

Vincent paused for a moment. This creature was someone he had heard before, and the creature clearly recognized him. After several moments of thinking, Vincent connected the voice with a name. "Paul?" Then it clicked. This was someone he had known in his first life. "Paul Bennett?"

 ** _You remember?_** The bear seemed surprised.

"Yeah. My memory's been repaired by a pair of idiots." Vincent explained, knowing that Paul was referring to the fact that spirits lost memories when they died. "What're you doing here? You were a noncombatant."

 ** _True._** Paul answered, a sad look in his eyes. He looked down at the three creatures crawling over his body. **_Go visit your Aunt Vi kiddos._**

The trio jumped off the bed and rushed through the right doorway. **_Aunty Vi!_**

Paul watched them run off with amusement in his eyes. **_Cute kids, aren't they?_** The bear sighed. **_It's a shame they'll never grow up. At least your victims have._**

"What do you mean?" Vincent asked, wondering exactly what the spirit was talking about.

 ** _Spirits continue to age after death, or at least some do. A spirit will change to their true self after death. In most cases, this means aging down, to the point in the spirit's life that they feel represents them best. When your true self is older than the age you died, then you don't stop aging normally._** Paul sighed. **_In this purgatory Nightmare made, we're unchanging. Sealed to be the same we were at the moment we died. No changing form without Nightmare's permission._**

"That's, uh, not the answer I was looking for." Vincent hesitantly replied. "I meant to ask what you meant by victims. It sounded like you were talking about people you killed."

Paul sighed again. **_I was._**

"So you…?

 ** _Yes. I killed them._** Paul answered, sadness in his eyes. **_It was an accident. Tony wanted me to bomb a car in order to scare someone into paying off their debts. I… I didn't know that the target was a woman with three children. Worse, I didn't know that there were three children in the car. Triplets. All three died instantly._** The bear's eyes began to tear up. Not with water like normal, but instead a dark fluid that seemed to be oil. **_After that, I… kinda blew myself up._**

"Wait, you were an explosives expert." Vincent said in confusion. "How did you blow yourself up?"

 ** _It was intentional. I decided to hold a grenade after pulling the pin. What I didn't intend was to kill the other two._** Paul scratched the back of his head, blinking away the tears. **_Azure and Violet were caught in the blast. Nightmare kinda got six for the price of one that week._**

Vincent mulled this over for a few moments, then raised his hand. "Question. Why didn't the triplets attack me?"

The bear smiled. **_Those three are special. Did you know that all spirits are capable of magic? The only real difference between a magic user and a normal spirit is really the accessibility of power. The triplets are the only ones who are magic users among us thirteen spirits trapped by Nightmare. They're able to completely resist its control, although they do still have to participate in its games._** Paul shrugged. **_I've probably picked up some of their ability to resist Nightmare. It can't affect me as easily, although it was trying hard last night._**

"Okay, another question. Why haven't the others been coming in while I was chatting with you?" Vincent knew full well that he had lowered his guard too much by talking with Paul, but he was more curious as to why the others hadn't showed up than he was worried.

 ** _Vi loves kids. She's probably busier playing with the triplets than she would be attacking you. As for Aaron, he's actually been outside your door the whole time._** Paul chuckled. **_Nightmare can't affect him unless he's at the end of the hallway._**

Well that confirmed Vincent's suspicion. "One last question. Who comes through the closet?"

 ** _He's in there right now. Nightmare's not affecting him right now, so you should go and visit him._** Paul chuckled again. **_Fair warning though, that guy has a mouth on him._**

"I think I can handle it." Vincent said confidently, walking over to the closet and knocking on the door. "Knock knock, you out of order in there?"

 ** _Sometimes I wish I was. Other times I just feel like ripping someone's arm off._** The answering voice came. **_'Course, that feeling happens more and more, now that redeyes has us being his slaves._**

"You really seem to enjoy making fun of people." Vincent replied. "An outlet for anger?"

 ** _Nah, it's just hilarious when people get mad at me. Nobody could possibly catch me anyways. It just pisses them off._** The voice inside laughed.

Vincent pushed the closet doors open to reveal a fox animatronic with sickly yellow eyes. Its fur was ragged and torn up all over, and it had a hook instead of a right hand. The teeth were just as ferocious as any other minion of Nightmare, and the other hand had the same claws as the other Nightmares as well. Other than the fact that this particular spirit had been molded into a twisted parody of Foxy, there was nothing special about it.

 ** _Really? You could've knocked first. What if I was naked?_** The fox growled.

"You're an animatronic and a ghost. I very seriously doubt you care." Vincent retorted.

 ** _Too right I don't care. I've been dead for fifteen years!_** The fox laughed. **_Speaking of, how's life treating you Vincent?_**

All the while, Vincent had been trying to make connections. "Connor Parr. What happened to you, exactly? And why the hell has Nightmare decided to send people who have connections to me?"

 ** _Can't answer that last question for you, but I can say that it's not because Nightmare has sentimental value for us. Thing hates us all, especially me and Paul._** Connor laughed. **_As for how I died, the short answer is asthma attack._**

The human almost laughed, but held himself back. Connor had been lightning fast in life, but by some quirk of fate he had asthma. Connor Parr, the man who was built like a sprinter, was extremely hampered by his respiratory issues. "Okay, but what about the long answer?"

 ** _Tony sent me on a job. The old bastard wanted me to sneak through a ventilation shaft._** Connor sighed. **_Ordinarily it wouldn't be an issue, but ordinarily the ventilation shaft isn't the dustiest place on earth. I had an asthma attack in that metal coffin, and the only reason my body isn't still there is because the smell forced them to search the vents._**

"Wow. That sucks." Vincent said sympathetically.

 ** _You have no idea._** The fox paused in thought. **_On second thought, you probably do know. You were stuck in that suit, right?_**

"Yeah…" Vincent scratched the back of his head. "I would rather not talk about that."

 ** _Hey, I get it._** Conner replied. **_Look, I need to tell you something about Nightmare. It-_**

 _Beep Beep Beep Beep._

 **Alright. This portion of the game is over.** Nightmare announced, its shadowy form appearing out of nowhere. **Time for you to wake up Vincent.**

 **Tomorrow is another day.**

* * *

 **So, I managed to write this one faster than the last one. If you couldn't tell, I enjoy writing the Nightmares. Their interactions are different from the ones with the normal animatronics.**

 **Of course, Nightmare itself takes the cake.**

 **In this chapter, we meet Paul, Tony's old explosives expert. Poor guy never wanted to kill anyone, but he wound up killing five in a couple days. As for our other newcomer, Connor, he's a big mouth. Guy doesn't know when to shut up. His interactions with the other Nightmares are very fun to write.**


	79. Angela

**What are you drawing this time?**

"Well, yesterday I drew Aaron and Violet. What do you think I'm drawing today?" Vincent asked, continuing to draw. He knew that Nightmare would probably get the answer either spot on or horribly incorrect, and both answers would be funny.

 **Why, C'est Moi.** Nightmare answered as if it was obvious.

"The rest of us don't understand French." Vincent retorted, despite knowing full well what Nightmare said.

 **Vincent, Vincent, Vincent...** Nightmare scolded. **How can you claim to be an artiste without knowing French?** The creature sighed. **It's me.**

"Wrong answer." Vincent muttered, still drawing. What he was actually drawing right now was Paul and the triplets. Vincent was probably going to continue to call them Freddles, simply because it was fun to say.

 **Tsk, tsk Vincent. You really aren't paying attention. All of my minions are creations of mine.** Nightmare laughed. **Not to mention that I am, in fact, on the page.**

Vincent sighed, looking at the drawing. As Nightmare stated, there were two red eyes hidden behind Paul. "Of course you are."

 **Why wouldn't I be? I am the most powerful entity in existence. I am in every painting, every mind. I dwell in every corner of existence.** Nightmare crowed.

"Only because your ego is larger than the known universe." Vincent stated, not even trying to taunt Nightmare. He was simply stating something that everyone who had encountered Nightmare knew.

Nightmare didn't even take it as an insult. **I have earned the right to boast. I started no more powerful than my brethren, and now I am extraordinarily strong. I have worked from the ground up to get where I am, and I am justifiably proud.**

"Fair enough." Vincent said with a shrug. He continued to draw Paul. The orange eyes changed from lights in a mechanical orb to normal eyes with orange irises. He removed the claws and fangs and replaced them with fluffy paws and normal teeth. Paul was still towering, but instead of being intimidating he was warm and friendly. The Freddles were perched on the bigger bear's head and shoulders, their forms changed to those of bear cubs. All of them were fluffy with big smiles, and he had assigned a color to each of them. They had no specific eye colors that he could see, so he simply gave them some. One was red, one green, and the last blue.

 **Why did you differentiate them?** Nightmare asked.

"Because they are different people…" Vincent murmured, ignoring Nightmare and continuing to draw the fur. Now that he had better drawing tools, he could do much more realistic and detailed art. He had redrawn Aaron and Violet already, and was very, very pleased with the results.

Finishing up on the first drawing, Vincent pulled out a second piece of paper and started drawing Connor. "So Nightmare, I've been meaning to ask you, what exactly are you?"

 **You know this already, I am an immortal entity that feeds off of fear.** Nightmare paused in thought. **Although it doesn't really matter if I consume fear or not. It doesn't affect my ability to operate. It's just a craving that I could ignore if I wanted to.**

"Not exactly what I meant, but good to know." Vincent replied, frowning in concentration as he drew Connor. "What I meant was whether you were male or female. You know, boy or girl."

 **Really? This whole debate again?** Nightmare sighed. **Gods damn it. Look. Male and female are human concepts. I am neither. NEITHER. My species consists of entities who are all neither. Some of us like to pretend, but NONE of us have genders, or sexes, or whatever you choose to call it. We have no need to reproduce, as we exist perpetually and are born of nothing. Please, don't ask me again.**

Vincent raised his eyebrows. Nightmare seemed really irritated this time. Normally it didn't swear, oddly enough. In fact, it seemed like this particular subject was one that Nightmare heard far more often than was safe for any living beings sanity. But Vincent decided to push his luck. "Yeah, but what do you identify as?"

 **Vincent, I swear to all of the circles of hell, if you bring this subject up again, I will kill you on the spot. I don't care that you have magical protection, or that it could lead to the absolute destruction of your soul, talk to me one more time about what gender I am, and I will murder you.**

"Right, point taken." Vincent backed down. He had struck a nerve, and that was probably the worst thing he could do to Nightmare. The thing was literally heartless, and it wouldn't hesitate to follow through on its threats.

With a shrug, Vincent went back to drawing Connor. He had given the fox a cocky smile, befitting his demeanor. He had also decided to include the hook, although he wasn't going to put an eyepatch on him. There was no real reason to make him look all the way like a pirate.

 **At last this one isn't missing anything, and you haven't added anything that doesn't belong.** Nightmare commented. **Although you probably should have included the claws and teeth.**

The human sighed and looked up from his drawing. Nightmare was extremely irritating, as always. Fortunately, nobody seemed to hear Vincent's seemingly one sided conversation. He was sitting at a table in the corner, and luckily nobody was close enough to hear his mutters. He turned his attention back to the drawing.

He decided to draw the shorts. That was certainly a part of his appearance. Vincent had decided to use a darker red than Foxy in order to draw Connor. It helped differentiate the two.

"Whatcha drawing?"

Vincent looked up in surprise. Standing there looking down at his drawing was a girl he recognized. "A fox."

"Is it Foxy? He's one of my favorites." The girl walked around the table and examined the fox he was drawing. "Although he doesn't have the eyepatch in your drawing."

"'S not Foxy. 'S someone else." Vincent murmured.

"Are you making your own character?" The girl asked curiously.

"Kinda." Was the shy answer.

"It's really cool." She complimented with a smile. "Can you draw another one?"

"OK. What of?" Vincent wondered exactly why this girl wanted him to draw for her.

 **Isn't she a cutie? Go ask her out Vincent.** Nightmare taunted him.

She's my niece you creep. Vincent thought to himself, wondering at the same time if Nightmare actually heard his thoughts.

 **I can hear you when you project like that. I don't see what the issue here is.**

There is something seriously wrong with you. Vincent thought, disgusted. Get out of my head.

 **Not yet Vincent. Not yet.** With that, Nightmare went silent.

"Do you know who Spring the rabbit is?" the girl asked, not knowing anything happened in Vincent's mind.

"Yeah." Vincent put the half-finished drawing of Connor to the side and started drawing Spring. It was extremely easy for him to do, since he could mentally picture the rabbit in almost photographic quality.

He started with the head, with its easily identifiable ears and happy grin. Within minutes, Vincent had drawn the outline of the golden rabbit and was starting to color it in. He wasn't taking a long time to draw it, but it was still really good. He finished by drawing and coloring in the turquoise eyes.

The whole time, the girl was watching over his shoulder, eyes wide in amazement. "Wow, that's so cool!" She looked at him. "What's your name?"

"Vincent." The boy answered without thinking. Then he started mentally cursing at himself.

 **Vincent, watch your language! No child your age should know words like that!** Nightmare interjected with a cruel laugh. **But then, you really screwed this up, didn't you?**

Don't rub it in. Vincent angrily thought, continuing with the drawing as if nothing changed.

"My name's Angela." The girl informed him. "My favorite animatronic is Spring, which one is yours?"

"Fredbear." Was the answer that Vincent gave. He knew that he was being taciturn, but he really didn't want to talk too much. Giving away the fact that he was the Spring actor would cause problems.

"That's cool, I like him too." Angela commented happily.

"There we go." Vincent announced, finishing the drawing. He handed it to his descendant with a smile.

"Wow, this is really cool! It's super realistic!" Angela enthused. "You're awesome!"

"Thanks." Vincent said shyly, scratching the back of his head.

"So what're you up to Vinny?" The girl asked.

"Um. Not much." Vincent answered. He usually hated it when people called him that, but he didn't particularly mind right now.

"Then let's go see the animatronics!" Angela grabbed his hand and pulled him off of his chair. "Let's see Foxy first! Spring hasn't been around much lately, or we would go find him."

"Hey!" Vincent protested as the girl propelled him onward. The two made their way to Pirate's Cove, which was closed, the purple curtains tightly wrapped around the stage.

"Aww…" Angela pouted, disappointed. "It looks like Foxy's not open right now."

Vincent hesitated, then made up his mind. "Wait a moment." He dashed up to the curtains and, despite Angela's protests, pushed past the purple fabric.

Foxy, who was sitting on a fake treasure chest and playing a handheld video game, his hook replaced by a normal hand. He looked up in utter and terrified shock as Vincent pushed into Pirate's Cove. "Now look-"

The human widened his eyes and shook his head, putting a finger to his lips. He walked closer to Foxy and quietly began talking. "Put the game away, and put your hook back on. We've got a guest."

Now Foxy recognized him. "Vincent. You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Not quite possible, but okay then. Just keep it down. Oh, and make sure to use your pirate voice. She doesn't know." Vincent whispered, a smile on his face.

"She?" Foxy asked quietly "You find yourself a girlfriend?"

"Ew. No. She's my niece." Vincent recoiled, still being quiet. "And anyways, I'm like, five."

"Only physically, right?"

"No. Most of the time it's both physically and mentally." Vincent explained. "We'd better get going. Get your pirate gear on, I'll bring her in."

"Gotcha." Foxy quickly removed his right hand and started fumbling around in the treasure chest for his hook.

Vincent didn't wait, knowing that the fox would be ready by the time he got back. He simply pushed out of the cove and walked up to Angela. The girl was turned away and sitting down. He reached out and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, Foxy's not on break any more."

Angela whirled around, a look of surprise on her face. "How?"

"They're good friends." Vincent answered simply. "C'mon."

"Wait how-" Angela was about to ask again when Vincent grabbed her hand and tugged her into the cove. She may have been twice his current age, but she was built similarly to him, meaning that she likely weighed only a dozen pounds more than him.

"Ahoy there mateys! And how're ye farin' on this fine day?" A cheerful, yet gravelly, voice greeted them.

"Ahoy Cap'n Foxy!" Vincent replied, saluting.

"Ahoy Captain!" Angela greeted, a massive grin on her face. She seemed to have forgotten her questions for Vincent, which was convenient.

"Now, how are me two best crew members doin'?" The fox asked them.

"Doing real good Cap'n!" Vincent and Angela answered in unison, both of them smiling.

"Now that's what I want ta hear!" Foxy exclaimed with a laugh. "Ol' Foxy doesn't have any stories fer ya today, but he does have somethin' fer First Mate Vincent and First Mate Angela."

With that, the fox reached into the treasure chest and pulled out a pair of tricorn hats. "A pair o' hats fer tha two of ye, ta mark yer importance in me crew!"

With wonder in her eyes, Angela accepted the hat reverentially. She slowly put it on her head, then looked up at Foxy. "Thank you Foxy!"

"'Tweren't nothin' fer a special lass like yerself." Foxy replied with a smile.

Angela blushed and hugged Foxy. The fox, used to reactions like this, laughed and returned the girl's hug. "Now off with ye! Ol' Foxy rarely gets any break time."

"'Bye Foxy!" Angela said, breaking off the hug. "C'mon Vinny!"

The girl skipped out of Pirate's Cove, Foxy and Vincent watching in amusement. "Cute kid, your niece." The fox whispered in amusement.

Vincent looked up at the animatronic. "She seems to like you."

While it wasn't possible to see any of the animatronics blush – with the obvious exception of BB – they very much could. In this occasion, Foxy was obviously blushing, the aura of embarrassment was almost tangible.

"You like her too!" Vincent exclaimed quietly.

"I'm not used to the attention Vincent." Was Foxy's honest answer. "I know I'm the favorite of many, but I'm seriously not used to it."

The human shrugged. "Okay. I'll drop it."

"Thanks Vince. And, uh, sorry for taunting you earlier." Foxy scratched the back of his head.

"All good." Vincent replied, starting on his way out of Pirate's Cove. "And thanks for putting on a show."

"See ya later Vincent." The fox said, returning to his break.

As Vincent exited the Cove, he noticed that Angela was watching the show onstage. The animatronics were sharing jokes and singing songs. As much as Vincent wanted to stay and watch, he had something he wanted to show Angela.

The boy made his way to the staff lounge. Nobody was watching, so it was a risk free thing for him to do. He rushed past Fritz, who was snacking on a piece of pizza, and made his way down to his room. Once inside, he grabbed Spring and picked it up, tottering a little bit. Vincent made his way up the stairs in steps, picking up Spring on each step and making his way up.

"Lemme help you with that."

Fritz picked up the rabbit and carried it up to the staff lounge. "Alright Vince, what're you up to?"

"I wanna show Angela Spring." Vincent explained.

"Yes, but Mike told you not to let anyone know that you live here." Fritz raised an eyebrow.

"I won't, I'll just put the suit on." Vincent looked up at Fritz. "I just need a little help with it…"

"I'll help you out." The older man put Spring down and held it upright. "You're going to have to undo the latches. I can't find them."

Vincent undid the latches on the suit, then climbed in, Fritz holding the suit upright to make it easier. "Thanks Fritz."

"I need to do something to make up for the way I've been treating you. Hell, your own victims treat you better than I have." Fritz scratched the back of his head. "Anyways, get out there. Have fun. Just be careful."

"Bye Fritz!" Vincent said as he left the staff lounge. Slowly creeping through the hall, he managed to avoid being spotted by anyone. Most of the people had left already, but Angela was still here. She was probably looking for Vincent.

That brought Vincent to a sudden realization. If he spoke, Angela would probably recognize him. That could cause some serious issues. As he was coming to this realization, Angela gasped in surprise.

"Spring?" the girl began to slowly walk down the hallway, her eyes wide with wonder.

Spring chirped in response. It was a noise that Vincent was incapable of making, yet that was easily explained as Vincent utilizing the voice box of the suit rather than his vocal cords.

"Oh my gosh, you're so cute!" The girl exclaimed, throwing her arms around the small rabbit. "And super fluffy too!"

The rabbit crooned happily. It was great that he was making Angela happy. That was the plan after all.

"You ARE Spring, right?" Angela asked, letting go and backing up a little bit.

With a chirp, the rabbit nodded in the affirmative.

"I gotta show this to my mom!" Angela grabbed Spring's hand and began tugging him to the main party area.

"Mom! You need to see this!"

"What is it honey?" Diane looked at her excitable daughter.

"I found Spring. He's little now, and really cute and soft!" Angela

"Really? Where is he?" The adult woman looked around.

"Right-" Angela whirled around, looking for Spring. "Here… he was here a second ago!"

"Well, maybe he'll be here on Monday. It's nearly closing time sweetie, we need to go." Diane told her daughter. "We'll come back in a couple of days."

Angela sighed. "Okay…"

With a final glance behind her, Angela ran off with her mother. She was smiling, not because they would be back, but because as they left, she saw something that made her grin.

A pair of golden yellow ears, poking around a corner.

Vincent smiled as the two left. They would be back on Monday, then he would be willing to show himself to Diane.

A chime signaled the closing time, and the animatronics stepped off the stage.

"Busy day." Bonnie commented, stretching.

"Well, it IS Saturday." Freddy informed the rabbit. "We do tend to have a lot more people come here on Saturday and Friday."

"Yeah, but why did it have to be so MANY?!" Bonnie complained. "I mean, when I got off stage during roaming time, I got mobbed!"

"We all did Bonnie." Freddy said with a sigh.

Chica, who had been silent up until now, spoke up. "Hello Vincent!~ How are you doing?"

Vincent grinned. He had been standing still the whole time, and apparently he had managed to evade the attention of both Bonnie and Freddy. "I may be stuck in the suit." He answered eventually.

"How?" Bonnie asked, scratching the back of his head. "Normally you have no problems hopping in and out of that thing."

"Normally I'm not" _Yawn_ "five." Vincent replied, only then realizing how absolutely tired he was.

"I'll help you out, then you need to get to bed." Chica said with a smile.

"Ok."

"Come on Vince."

The two made their way to the staff lounge. Vincent began to stumble down the stairs, only to suddenly lose his balance.

Before he could cry out in panic, Chica caught him. The chicken picked him up and started to carry him down the stairs. "Don't worry Vincent, I've got you."

"Thanks Chica." The boy murmured tiredly.

The animatronic carried him into his room and set him down on his bed. "You're going to have to undo the latches sweetie."

"Mhm." Vincent sluggishly undid the latches on the suit, causing the back to fall off. He slowly pulled his arms and legs out of the suit and slid himself under the covers of his bed.

Chica tucked him in with a smile and put Spring on the ground. "Good night Vincent."

"'night mom…"

Chica's eyes widened and she gasped in shock. "Did you just…?"

Vincent began to panic, his tired mind not working properly. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm-"

He was cut off by Chica pulling him into a tight hug, her face buried in his hair. "Never say sorry for that." She kissed the top of his head, tears running down her face. "You've done absolutely nothing wrong."

It was then that Vincent realized that what he had said wasn't wrong, but was entirely what Chica had wanted to hear. Chica loved children as if they were her own, but therein lay the issue. Chica could never have children, so she never had an outlet for her love. She was a mother hen with no chicks, and there was no way for her to have them.

Vincent returned her hug. "Love you Chica."

He didn't hear her response, because he fell asleep in the warm feathers.

* * *

 **I've been thinking of this last scene for a while, and while I feel somewhat satisfied with it, I probably could've done better.**

 **A guest asked whether Vincent's hair was black again, or if it was still white. I probably should've stated this earlier, but it is still white. The brothers made him a five year old version of himself, but they did not return him to true childhood.**


	80. Plushtrap

**GODS DAMN IT! It BACKFIRED! Why in the nine circles of Hell did he have to wait until THEN to feel the effects? It was supposed to affect him while he was with the GIRL! It was NOT supposed to INCREASE his bond with the lost souls!**

 ** _And why are you taking this out on me?_**

 **It doesn't matter. It DOESN'T. He's doomed anyways. You two will ensure that.**

 ** _He could always win._**

 ** _I swear to god if he wins and Nightmare punishes us for it, I'm blaming you._**

 ** _Meh. I've had a lot of people blame me. You among them. Frankly, I'm rooting for Vincent in this case. He's got spirit._**

 **Perhaps this will turn out in my favor. He will certainly hate it when I win.**

 ** _Has it ever occurred to you that you might not win?_**

 ** _Of course it hasn't. Nightmare is the lord of ego._**

 **Heh, maybe his newfound affection for the chicken will allow me to find a new weakness.**

 ** _And maybe pigs will fly._**

 ** _Careful what you say old man. Nightmare might decide to take offense._**

 ** _Nightmare is ignoring us right now. I very highly doubt it'll bother to punish us for comments made while it rants. In any case, you've been insulting it more._**

 **Hmm… perhaps not. Violet does not wish to harm him. Something she shares with Chica. Not to mention, the ingrate Paul will warn him if I take control. I will have to rely upon the other three and Barry to make his life miserable. At least until you two can enter the scene.**

 ** _Yeah, you're right. Nightmare's completely ignoring us. Stupid thing._**

 ** _Straight up insulting it won't help either of us._**

 ** _Like he'll do anything._**

 **What was that?**

 ** _Erm, nothing!_**

 ** _I warned you._**

 **Did you just label me with a gender?**

 ** _No! I swear!_**

 ** _Goddammit slinger. You're screwed._**

 **I smell a liar~.**

 ** _I didn't mean it! It was a slip of the tongue!_**

 ** _You don't have a tongue in your current form._**

 ** _Dammit old man! You're gonna get me killed!_**

 ** _We're both dead already. Nightmare literally can't kill you. Just enjoy the new form of Hell it shows you._**

 **Hmm… what to do with you…**

 ** _I won't do it again!_**

 **I doubt that. You'll try for a few months, then you'll slip up again. It's already happened multiple times to the others. They learned their lessons, and now it's your turn. It's such a shame you're a slow learner though…**

 ** _Please! No!_**

 **Your punishment will have to wait though… we have an eavesdropper.**

 ** _Is it Vincent?_**

 **Not this time. It doesn't matter. The listener cannot help him. Although, I will need to lock them out…**

* * *

 ** _Ow._**

 ** _Connor, for the last time! Stop trying to remove the spike!_**

 ** _What'm I supposed to do? Nightmare frickin' IMPALED me!_**

 ** _You'll be fine as long as you stop trying to wiggle off._**

 ** _I want to go visit Vince! I didn't get to tell him about ##########_**

 ** _Yeah, well, Nightmare's not gonna let you tell him about that. It would blow a hole in its plans._**

 ** _Who's Nightmare gonna put in my place then?_**

 ** _Her._**

 ** _Oh. Right. Vincent ain't gonna be happy about that._**

 ** _There's nothing we can do. She cares more about evading punishment than helping Vincent._**

 ** _Where is she right now anyways?_**

 ** _Hell if I know._**

 ** _She never shows up here anyways. She's always hiding._**

 ** _Well, I don't blame her. Though I would like a bit more company._**

 ** _You have the rest of us._**

 ** _Y'all get boring._**

 ** _Connor, you are quite possibly the rudest person I've ever met…_**

 ** _Takes talent, that._**

 ** _Of course you take pride in that. You're the world's biggest mouthed thief._**

 ** _There's a lot of competition, but I take the cake Vi._**

 ** _Yes, yes you do._**

Vincent giggled. These guys were hilarious to listen to, even if Nightmare had censored information that would've helped him.

 ** _Aaron, you're supposed to use those oversized ears of yours to let us know when Vincent is here!_**

 ** _Vincent's up._**

 ** _Gee thanks captain obvious! I never would've guessed!_**

 ** _Your mouth is the only reason you were impaled in the first place. You might want to take a lesson from this._**

 ** _What? That Nightmare likes to drive a spike through my chest?_**

 ** _Believe me when I say that all of us want to do the same thing. The only real difference is that Nightmare actually has the power to do so._**

 ** _Guys, you really should shut up._**

The three voices went silent. It sounded like Paul wasn't with the others tonight, but that was probably because he was already in position. Vincent's only question was who 'she' was. From what the others had said, whoever it was didn't like him much.

 **Hello Vincent.**

"Hello Nightmare. Mind explaining why I'm in your realm a lot earlier than I would ordinarily be?" Vincent asked, irritated by the fact that he had fallen asleep with little warning.

 **Hmm… perhaps you need to sleep in more?** Nightmare suggested innocently. **You could keep me company.**

Well, that confirmed Vincent's suspicion that that Nightmare was responsible. "You have thirteen souls under your command. Why not spend time with them?"

 **They get boring after a while. We have a new soul among us, but even he got boring. Living people, now they're more interesting.** Nightmare began its monologue. **After all, those who are trapped within this realm can't change. They're sealed to be the same as they were upon death.**

"Uh huh." Vincent replied, not believing that what Nightmare said was true. He had seen for himself that the spirits were different from their in-life personalities. Paul, who was usually meek, had been fighting Nightmare. Aaron had let go of his hate. Violet was no longer a warrior who took challenge in combat. Connor… well, Connor was the same, but Vincent didn't see how anyone could get bored of the asthmatic thief's witty commentary.

"So, what's the surprise for tonight?" the human asked, not expecting an honest response.

 **Not much, just some more fun with Plushtrap.** Nightmare laughed, and the room began to fade. In moments, Vincent found himself in the hallway with the chair.

"Always with the dramatic entrances." Vincent muttered, clicking on his flashlight. There was Plushtrap on the chair, just like last time. Vincent felt far more confident this time, feeling as if he couldn't lose.

With a small _click_ Vincent turned off the flashlight to wait. Plushtrap would have to start moving soon, and hopefully Vincent would be able to halt the rabbit on the X.

 _Now._

Vincent shook off the feeling that he should click his flashlight on. It was too soon for Plushtrap to have reached the X. Right?

After a moment of internal debate, Vincent clicked the flashlight on. Right in front of him, between him and the X, was the yellow rabbit.

"Gah!" Vincent shouted, jumping back. "I just lost, didn't I?"

To Vincent's surprise, the rabbit shook its head.

"Did you just…?" The human muttered in surprise. "Are you answering me?"

This time, the rabbit nodded, then tilted its head and chirped. It took a few steps closer to him, then chirped again.

Vincent blinked. "You're not Barry are you? You would be talking if that creepy kid was in control…"

Plushtrap stepped even closer, then quickly threw its arms around him.

"What the…?!" Vincent exclaimed, not expecting the rabbit to attack him after its previous friendly attitude. Then he realized that it was hugging him, and not only that, but it was crooning happily as well. Vincent chuckled, then ran his hands through the surprisingly soft fur of the greenish yellow rabbit. "Who are you really?"

The rabbit just chirped in response again. It didn't seem to be capable of speech, at least not the normal kind.

With sudden dread, Vincent realized that Nightmare would certainly make the game harder for this. "Can Nightmare see or hear us?"

Plushtrap released its hug and shook its head.

"How do you know?"

After a moment of thought, the rabbit shrugged.

"Can you let me know when Nightmare is watching?" Vincent asked hopefully. If it could…

The rabbit nodded, then chirped questioningly.

It was asking how it should do that, wasn't it? Vincent surprisingly understood the rabbit very well, despite its inability to speak. "Umm… grab your left ear and tug on it if Nightmare is watching." That should be a distinctive enough tell.

Plushtrap chirped happily, then widened its eyes and hopped backwards onto the X, flopping into an inactive position.

Just in time too, because Nightmare spoke then.

 **Hmm… I was hoping you would learn what it looks like when Plushtrap wins the game. No matter, there's always tomorrow night. Time for the main attraction.** Nightmare laughed, seemingly not noticing that Plushtrap had, technically, won.

Vincent looked up, seeing Nightmare descend from the ceiling. He looked into its red eyes, then looked back down. To his surprise, Nightmare had transported him to the room with the bed.

First things first, Vincent turned around and shined his flashlight on the bed. To Vincent's slight dismay, the triplets weren't there.

 _Right door._

The human walked over to the right door and listened. There wasn't any of the heavy breathing that signified the presence of one of the spirits, but there was a sound that Vincent couldn't identify. "Violet? You there?"

In response, there was a happy chirping sound. That was different. Vincent clicked on his flashlight to see Plushtrap standing in the hallway, a triumphantly mischievous look on its face.

"Umm… what?" Vincent said dumbly, not comprehending the fact that the rabbit had made it here from its hallway. "How did you get here?"

Plushtrap just chirped happily again, throwing itself at Vincent and hugging him.

"Well you're clingy." Vincent laughed. Plushtrap crooned in response, causing Vincent to laugh again. "I like you too."

 ** _Vincent? You here?_** A female voice echoed down the hallway.

"Yeah I'm here Vi. I need you to come to the room." Vincent called back, looking down at Plushtrap, who was still hugging him. "C'mon buddy, let's get in the room."

Vincent pulled the rabbit into the room. Plushtrap refused to let go of its hug. Its fluffy fur made the hug comfortable, but it was still almost the same weight as Vincent. This meant that it was difficult for Vincent to move the mechanical bunny, but it was still doable.

 ** _What is it you needed Vincent?_** Violet asked as she pushed the door open, her warm scarlet eyes scanning the room. At the sight of Plushtrap, she snarled, then reached out and grabbed the rabbit, ripping it off of Vincent. **_BARRY! You little runt! What're you doing here?!_**

In response, the rabbit started squirming and crying piteously. "Vi stop."

The massive animatronic ignored him. **_What's your angle? What're you trying to do to Vincent?_**

"Vi stop it. That's not Barry." Vincent protested.

Plushtrap squealed in discomfort as Vi tightened her grip. **_What do you think you're going to accomplish by sneaking in here?_**

"VI!" Vincent shouted. "Stop it! That's NOT Barry!"

 ** _What?_** Vi seemed confused. **_But it has to be. Nightmare gave this form to Barry._**

"I don't know how it works, but that's not Barry. It helped me when I would have otherwise lost the game at the start of tonight. Now put Plushtrap down." Vincent said tiredly.

As soon as its feet touched the floor, Plushtrap rushed over to Vincent and hugged him, whimpers audible. It was obviously scared of Violet, as it was shaking as it threw its arms around Vincent. "Shh… it's okay buddy. It's okay. Vi didn't mean to scare you."

 ** _Oh my god. I'm an idiot._** The mechanical chicken muttered, smacking herself in the face with the palm of her hand. She walked a little closer to the two and knelt down. **_I'm sorry little guy. I thought you were someone else._**

Plushtrap let go of Vincent and slowly crept towards Violet. The larger animatronic smiled gently, or at least as close to it as she could get with her nightmarish appearance. Plushtrap stepped a little closer, and Violet pulled the little rabbit into a gentle hug. **_I'm so sorry I scared you earlier. I didn't mean to._** Violet looked down at Plushtrap. **_And aren't you just the cutest thing!_**

At this, the rabbit began to croon happily. Plushtrap nuzzled into her large form, making its happy noises all the while.

There was the sound of the closet door sliding closed.

Vincent looked at the closet, then back at Plushtrap and Violet. Plushtrap was a very affectionate creature, enjoying hugs to an almost extrema amount, and Violet was happy to oblige. Neither of them would notice him going to check out the closet.

The human cautiously approached the doors to the closet. Connor wasn't here tonight, right? That means that this would be the mystery person that the others had been talking about. "Hello?"

 ** _It's… you._** Came the answer.

"Who are you?"

 ** _You don't know? How do you not know? But then, the others are all murderers, just like you, and they don't remember their victims._**

Well this was strange. Who was this person? "I regret hurting people, but I cannot change the past."

 ** _You could have let me go. You could have just taken the money and let me live._**

Vincent's blood began to chill. "Who are you?"

A pair of golden yellow eyes appeared in the shadows of the closet. **_You remember now?_**

"Hope…" Vincent whispered in horror, backing away from the closet.

 ** _Now I'm going to get my revenge!_** With a screech, a white and pink animatronic rocketed out of the closet, straight towards Vincent.

 ** _Cut it out._** A clawed hand grabbed the collar of the creature, and flung it to the ground. **_And stop lying._**

 ** _Aaron, you just had to ruin the party._** Now the white animatronic's voice was different, being extremely ambiguous, as opposed to the clearly feminine voice from before. **_I was about to prevent all of us from having to suffer Nightmare's punishments._**

 ** _I would rather suffer Nightmare's wrath than kill Vincent. At least he has atoned for his sins._** The blue rabbit stepped down on the white animatronic's back. **_Now cut it out Tali._**

 ** _Fine._** The creature on the floor stopped trying to get up. Now that it was stationary, Vincent could clearly see that it was a fox. It looked like a twisted version of Vix, with the pink highlights on white fur. Its eyes began to slowly shift colors, never staying on any one. It was impossible to guess what gender this animatronic was, but that was fine. Vincent knew who this was.

Tali, the disguise master. Vincent was never certain which gender they were. They never looked the same each time Vincent had seen them either, their skill at cosmetic design and outfit manipulation allowing them to never be recognizable a second time. Not to mention their incredible skill at voice mimicry, Tali was impossible to pick out from a crowd of people.

"So Tali, what lead to your death?" Vincent asked, a safe distance from the irritated fox.

 ** _Well, it's rather simple. I'm a wanted thief. I've stolen millions of dollars' worth of assorted objects, both fenced and straight cash. So once the police finally caught me red handed, they locked me up in the highest security prison they could._** Tali shrugged. **_Needless to say, they underestimated me yet again. I managed to knock out a security guard and sneak out using his outfit. Unfortunately, one of the buggers recognized the outfit, and shot me in the leg._** The white fox laughed. **_The bastard was a bad shot. He missed my leg entirely and hit me in the back. I was dead before he even realized his mistake._**

"Ouch. That sucks." Vincent said sympathetically. "So uh, why were the others referring to you as 'she' and 'her' earlier?"

 ** _Tali decided that they wanted to be female today._** Aaron explained, looking down at the fox. **_If I let you go, will you leave Vincent alone?_**

 ** _Yes. Although I'm pointing at you when it comes to Nightmare deciding punishments._** Tali warned.

 ** _Nightmare already hates me. I think I'll survive._** Aaron replied, lifting his foot off of Tali's back.

 ** _Thank god. That was starting to hurt._** The fox pushed themselves off of the floor, brushing themselves off. **_Anyways, didn't expect you to get Barry of all people to leave you alone._**

"It's not Barry. I don't know how, but Plushtrap is not Barry. At least not tonight." Vincent scratched the back of his head. "And Plushtrap is extremely clingy. It seems to really like hugs."

 **What is going on here?**

Everyone froze. Nightmare began to coalesce in the center of the room. **You are supposed to KILL Vincent. Not befriend him. You have all failed me.**

 ** _Screw off nightmare._** Aaron growled. In response, Nightmare launched the blue rabbit into the wall.

 **Tsk, tsk…** Nightmare looked around the room, its eyes landing on Violet. The chicken was holding Plushtrap in her arms, the small rabbit crooning happily all the while. **What do we have here?**

 ** _You leave Plushtrap alone!_** Violet snarled viciously. **_He's done nothing wrong!_**

 **Plushtrap? But Barry should be…** Nightmare stopped in surprise, then a tendril of shadow launched out of its mass and snatched Plushtrap from Violet's grip. **You're not Barry!** Nightmare seemed genuinely surprised for once.

Plushtrap whimpered in response, clearly not liking Nightmare. Vincent gritted his teeth. "Leave him alone."

Nightmare seemed to completely ignore Vincent. **How? You are my construct! What are you?! You have no soul I can detect, yet your existence is external to my own!**

"Leave Plushtrap alone." Vincent repeated angrily.

 **Not now mortal, I am investigating this.** Nightmare brushed Vincent off, its original goal forgotten. **How do you exist at all, little one? You are an enigma. Your form is born of my power, yet your spirit, your equivalence of a human soul, is unique. It lacks many human qualities, yet it has more than my own.**

The rabbit whimpered again, wanting to get away from Nightmare. "Let him go!" Vincent shouted, throwing the flashlight at Nightmare.

A clawed hand caught the flashlight, and Nightmare snapped out of its curious mood. **No matter.** It threw Plushtrap to the ground. **Tonight is finished, but tomorrow is another day.**

* * *

Vincent shifted in bed and mumbled a little bit, not forming coherent words. That had been a weird iteration of Nightmare's game. Plushtrap had been friendly, however that happened.

He shifted again, and realized that there was some other weight on the bed. That was strange. Maybe one of the adults or animatronics was in the room.

With a yawn, Vincent opened his eyes. To his surprise, his gaze was met by a pair of brilliant turquoise eyes.

"Vinny!"

* * *

 **Odds are, if you liked this chapter, you'll like the next one. No promises on when it'll be posted though.**

 **For those wondering whether Tali is a male or a female, the answer is yes.**

 **Also, yes, Nightmare broke the fourth wall up at the start of the chapter. Don't want to confuse people with that.**


	81. Spring

"Vinny!" The small creature in front of him cried out, throwing its arms around him.

"Spring?!" Vincent muttered in disbelief. Sure enough, the golden yellow rabbit was the one who was hugging him. "How…?"

The rabbit let go of him and hopped to the floor. "I can change from suit mode!" To demonstrate, Spring walked over to the corner that he had been placed in, and with a loud click, slumped to the floor. After a moment, there was another click and he stood back up again. "Ta-dah!"

Vincent's jaw dropped. Spring certainly not just an AI, especially with how he was acting. In fact, it was almost human.

But that was impossible. There were no spirits attached to Spring. Apart from Vincent himself, of course; and he was inhabiting his own body. So how in the world was the rabbit a fully alive entity?

"…Vincent?" Spring seemed nervous. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No. Why?" Vincent asked in surprise.

"You weren't talking… and I didn't tell you earlier…" Spring shrank down, his ears drooping.

"Tell me what?" Vincent was confused. What was it that Spring had been hiding from him?

"That I'm alive…" Spring shrank down even more, as if he expected Vincent to explode on him.

Oh. That. "No, I'm not mad at you for that."

"I-I was scared. I thought you m-might not like me…" Spring continued onwards. "I thought that the others wouldn't like me either. I wanted to see you first…"

Vincent could tell that the rabbit was convinced that he was mad. "You were shy. There's nothing wrong with that."

"B-but you had to worry about N-Nightmare and then before that I had s-so many chances and I didn't tell you!" The golden rabbit trailed off with a wail. It looked like he was about to burst into tears.

"It's not your fault." Vincent wrapped his arms around Spring, the two small figures huddling together in a hug of companionship. "I'm scared of Nightmare too."

"I-it's scary. I-it hurt. When it g-grabbed me, and threw me on the g-ground." Spring was shaking.

The human wanted so badly to know what Spring meant, but what was truly important was comforting the rabbit. "It won't happen again. I'll make sure it never happens again. Nightmare won't hurt you anymore."

That seemed to be what Spring needed to hear. The golden animatronic slowly stopped shaking, and buried his face in Vincent's shoulder. It wasn't long before Spring simply fell asleep.

Vincent sat this way for an indeterminate amount of time, hugging the fluffy rabbit while he slept. Spring was so soft, almost like a pillow…

He was awoken by the sound of someone knocking on the door. That was strange, usually his alarm clock was what woke him. Either that, or Nightmare forcing him out of the dream realm. Vincent wasn't quite sure which.

"Vincent? It's almost ten." That sounded like the Puppet. "Are you up?"

"Yeah, but come in." Vincent answered, his voice clearly tired. "I need to show you something."

The door slowly creaked open and the Puppet came in. As its eyes landed on Vincent, its lips widened in a kind smile. "Did you sleep well?"

"Kinda. I need to show you this." Vincent answered. He gently shook the rabbit in his arms. "C'mon Spring. Wake up."

To the surprise of the Puppet, Spring opened his eyes and blearily blinked a few times. "'m tired…" The rabbit looked around, and waved at the Puppet. "'lo Mari…"

The Puppet's eyes widened in utter shock. "How is this possible…?"

"I dunno. I thought you would." Vincent replied. "It's time to get up buddy."

"'k." Spring answered, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

Vincent struggled upright, then pulled Spring up after him. The Puppet was looking at Spring with an expression of pure wonder. "This is amazing. I don't know of any other instance where a soul has been created without the natural process of reproduction."

"So what do you mean?" Vincent asked.

"It's fascinating. Spring has obtained a soul from you, without taking yours. It created a new soul from a fragment of your soul." The Puppet reached down and picked Spring up, looking straight into the rabbits eyes. "The fact that Spring housed your soul for sixteen years, then became spiritbound, has split your soul in two. A larger fragment, containing most, possibly all, of your personality; and a smaller fragment, containing a large amount of your emotion. I'd wager that Spring is the reason that Nightmare hasn't been able to affect your mind."

"Can you put me down…?" Spring asked blearily, still not fully awake yet.

"In fact, Spring most likely has a connection straight to your mind. That would explain why your soul can travel to the animatronic and back to your body. The animatronic is linked directly into your mind, allowing you to fully utilize Spring's body as your own." The Puppet marveled. "You may even be able to perform telepathy with each other. Both being able to see into the other's mind. It's amazing. I never realized that a soul fragmented in two, with a proper vessel for each fragment, could develop into two full souls."

"Umm…" Vincent mumbled, scratching the back of his head. "I understood none of that."

"Can you put me down now…?" Spring kicked his feet, not fully comfortable being held up in the air like this.

"Oh. Of course. I'm sorry." The Puppet set the rabbit back on the ground, absentmindedly scratching behind his ears. The rabbit moved into the scratching sensation, his ears twitching at the contact. The Puppet seemed only then to realize what it was doing, then smiled.

Vincent giggled. Spring looked really funny with how he was reacting to having behind his ears scratched. The rabbit was leaning into the Puppet, his eyes closed in pleasure. "Do your ears itch Spring?"

Spring seemed to notice his reaction to the Puppet scratching his head, and stopped immediately. "…yes." The rabbit seemed embarrassed.

The Puppet laughed, a strange musical noise that Vincent hadn't really taken notice of before. "Tell me Spring, what is the earliest date you remember having your own identity?"

"Umm…" Spring stopped in thought. "Not long after Vinny came back."

"From death?" Spring nodded in confirmation. "Very interesting…"

"Why is this important?" Vincent asked, not comprehending.

"Because in that case, Spring would have needed to have some amount of your memories in order to function. A completely new soul usually exists within a child, and grows as they do. This is almost anomalous." The Puppet answered, still thinking. "Spring's whole personality is an extension of your memories and experiences. Not necessarily your knowledge, however."

The Puppet was interrupted by Chica's voice echoing down the hallway. "Puppet? You came down here thirty minutes ago. Is something holding you-" The chicken entered the room. "-up?" Chica looked around, her eyes landing on Spring. "Oh my gosh! Aren't you just the cutest little thing!"

"Hi Chica." Spring replied shyly.

"Wait a second…" Chica looked at Spring, then Vincent, then back again. "How…?"

"Spring has developed a soul of his own, independent of Vincent. It's rather unique." The Puppet explained. "Something caused by the combined effects of being the vessel in which Vincent's soul resided and being a valid vessel that he is spirit bound to. That's not even getting into the strange things that occur when a spirit utilizes a machine as a vessel."

"So Spring and Vincent are different people now?" Chica asked in surprise.

"We have been since almost the moment I was resurrected." Vincent answered.

"'m still not good at walking yet." Spring mumbled, stumbling over to Chica. He looked up at the older animatronic. "What's for breakfast?"

"I've made pancakes. That's why I wanted the Puppet to come get Vincent." Chica kneeled down to Spring's height. "Although you are very much welcome to join us."

"Thank you Chica." Spring stepped forward and hugged the larger yellow animatronic.

Then it clicked. This scene was so familiar that it wasn't even funny, the only difference was in the appearance of the two animatronics.

Spring was Plushtrap.

 _I was going to tell you…_ A voice said in the back of Vincent's mind. _But…_

 _Wait. That was YOU?_ Vincent asked back in disbelief. _The whole time?_

 _We should talk about this later. Telepathy is hard._ Spring went silent.

Well that brought a whole new perspective. It seemed that Spring agreed with him on his decision not to tell the others about Nightmare's game, although the Puppet could probably figure it out, given time. The Puppet already knew about Nightmare's presence, it was only a matter of time before it learned about the deal that Vincent had made.

"Vincent, are you alright?" Chica was looking at him with an expression of worry on her face.

"I'm fine, just thinking." Vincent replied, shaking his head. "Let's go get some breakfast, and introduce Spring to the others."

Spring looked up at Chica's eyes, his turquoise eyes meeting her magenta orbs. "Can you carry me? I'm still tired…" The rabbit mumbled, looking down at his feet. "And I'm not sure if I can walk up stairs…"

"Come on sweetie, up we go." Chica picked Spring up and cradled him in her arms. It looked like a mother cradling her child, especially considering the size difference. Chica was close to seven feet tall, and in her arms the rabbit looked like a baby.

The golden rabbit nuzzled into her feathers, falling asleep almost instantly. Spring really was exhausted. Projecting himself into Vincent's dreams probably took an incredible amount of energy. But that raised a big question. Did Spring have magic of his own? If he did, then was it the same as Vincent's? Or was it completely unique?

Vincent shook off his train of thought and went with the animatronics upstairs. As the four made their way to the kitchen, Vincent could smell the pancakes. It smelled like they were recently finished, and the smell made Vincent's stomach grumble and his mouth water.

"Hey you three. What's up?" Bonnie greeted.

"Four, actually." Chica replied, looking at Spring with a gentle smile. "Be quiet though, he's sleeping."

"Who?" Bonnie asked, being a bit quieter. The tall rabbit walked over to Chica.

"Spring. Turns out he's been alive almost the whole time." Chica whispered in response.

"Wow. Kinda feel bad for the poor little guy. He had to spend most of his time with Vincent." The lavender rabbit joked with a smile.

"Vincent's great…" Spring murmured, groggily opening his eyes. "He does good drawings, and makes funny jokes. Just don't ask him to cook…"

"Welcome to the family little guy." Bonnie smiled kindly, an expression which Vincent hadn't seen many times. At least, not directed at him.

"Hi Bonnie." Spring blinked a few times, then reached up and poked Bonnie on the nose. To the surprise of everyone, there was a squeaking sound. Spring giggled. "Hah, wondered about that."

Bonnie looked cross-eyed at his nose. "What. The. Hell."

"Bonnie…" Chica started warningly.

"I know, I know, language." Bonnie waved her off, still staring at his nose. "Why in the world did Fritz decide that installing a squeaker in my nose was a good idea?"

"I thought it was funny." Vincent interjected. "And anyways, Freddy, Fredbear, and Theo have squeaky noses. It makes sense for you and Ben to have them too. Also, Foxy and Vix should have squeaky noses. That would take the cake."

"Okay, that would be funny." Bonnie snickered. "Just imagine Foxy telling a story, when suddenly-"

 _Squeak!_

The lavender rabbit stood entirely motionless for a few seconds, then slowly turned around and stared at the newcomer. Foxy, who happened to be said newcomer, burst into laughter. "You have no idea how funny that was!"

"Let's see if it happens to you too." Bonnie's arm shot forward, his index finger pressing down on Foxy's nose.

 _Squeak!_

"Oh my god. You DO have a squeaker in your nose!" Bonnie exclaimed. "That's perfect!"

Both of the animatronics began poking each other in the nose, creating a flurry of squeaks. It all came to a sudden halt as a pair of brown furred hands grabbed both of the other animatronics by the wrists. "Alright you two. That's enough."

"Sorry Freddy." The two chorused, both of them lowering their ears in shame.

Then Bonnie gave Foxy a sidelong look, and both of them shot their hands towards Freddy's nose.

 _Squeak!_

For the fourth time that day, a squeak was heard from the face of an animatronic. Freddy's eyelids lowered in irritation and more than a little anger. "Really?"

The two mischievous animatronics gulped, then Foxy tapped Bonnie on the shoulder. "I don't have to outrun the bear. Just gotta outrun you."

With that, the fox sped off, Bonnie close behind him. Freddy just growled grumpily and turned back to the others. "What exactly is going on?"

"Hi Freddy." Spring greeted from his position in Chica's arms.

Freddy raised his eyebrows. "Wow. I did not expect that. Spring is alive then?"

"You hit the nail on the head." The Puppet confirmed.

"How long has he been sentient for?"

"Almost the same amount of time as Vincent has been alive." The Puppet answered.

"'m tired again." Spring said with a yawn. "Can we eat pancakes then go back to sleep?"

"Oh right! The pancakes!" Chica exclaimed, rushing into the kitchen. She came out again with a plate of pancakes in one hand, Spring still cradled in her other arm. She set down the plate on one of the party tables, then ducked back into the kitchen, coming out with a stack of plates. "Here we are, help yourselves!" The chicken looked down at Spring. "I'm gonna have to set you down if you want to eat."

"OK." Spring replied, rubbing his eyes.

Chica set Spring down in one of the chairs and started to dish out pancakes. Freddy decided to join them, five plates being set out on the table. As soon as there were three pancakes on his Plate, Spring began to scarf them down, not even stopping to taste them.

"You must be very hungry." Chica said with a laugh.

"Low battery." Was Spring's answer as he continued to shove pancakes in his mouth.

Of course, that was it. The animatronics had two methods of recharging, either by eating or by going to sleep and recharging their internal battery using the somewhat electrical energy generated by a soul. They could, of course, also plug into an outlet and recharge that way, but it was inefficient and extremely expensive. Fritz's adaptation of technology to make cheaper recharging methods was truly genius.

Spring finished his pancakes and put his plate to the side, seeming much more awake than earlier. "Thank you for breakfast Chica."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." Chica replied with a smile, taking the plate into the kitchen. She came back a moment later to collect the other finished plates, taking Vincent's, Freddy's, and the Puppet's.

"Vincent…" Spring started. "I gotta talk to you." The rabbit looked at the Puppet and Freddy. "Um. Alone."

"You two go. You have things that you need to talk to each other about." The Puppet waved the two off.

Spring and Vincent retreated to the staff lounge and went down to Vincent's room. "Okay… so… you already figured out that I'm the one who was Plushtrap last night…"

"Yeah. What did you want to tell me about?" Vincent was curious. Spring apparently had quite a few secrets.

"So, um…" Spring twiddled his thumbs. "I've been in your dreams since the start…"

"The start of what?" Vincent asked, confused.

"Since you came back. Um… every dream. I may have been snooping. In your personal memories…" Spring shrank back a little bit, but continued on. "I have most of them. In here." He tapped the side of his head. "But not… not all of them. So I've been looking at your memories. Digging some of them up… that's why you had flashbacks…"

"Okay then." Vincent replied, deep in thought. He wasn't mad at Spring, truly. Although he had only known about Spring's sentience since this morning, he felt like the rabbit was an important part of him. Kind of like how Marcus was his driving force way back when.

"Remember that day in the park?" Spring asked suddenly.

"Yeah, why?"

"I may have cheated… just a little." Spring scratched the back of his head. "I have a, um, radar in my head. I don't know if the others do too. It lets me know where the other animatronics are. At all times. So I may have cheated and warned you when Vix was about to get you…"

"So that was you?" Vincent asked in surprise, then he laughed. "It didn't matter anyways. Vix just dropped on my head." Vincent thought for a second. "Has that voice always been you?"

"Most of the time…" Spring replied sheepishly. "Not before your death, or while you were Springtrap. I wasn't alive then. But since you came back. And more since Franklin died."

Vincent snapped his fingers in realization. "Like when Nightmare first attacked me?"

"And the second time, and the third, and every night since." Spring added.

"You were Fredbear in that dream where I was Springtrap again, weren't you…?" When Spring nodded, Vincent continued. "Why did you tell me it was an alternate reality?"

"Nightmare would've noticed immediately if I broke character too far…" Spring shrugged. "And it's accurate to what would've happened if Mike had never been hired as the night guard. You would still be Springtrap, Fredbear would be Goldie instead, the Puppet would have destroyed itself, and many, many night guards would have been forcibly stuffed into suits."

"Wow…" Vincent muttered. "What about the one after that?"

"Where you were still a thug in Tony's employ?" Spring asked. Vincent nodded. "Well… Tony would still be alive today, Franklin would never have betrayed you, and you would never have been Springtrapped. But that's if Marcus had joined you."

"Ok then… what about after? When Nightmare openly attacked me?"

"Nightmare has extremely strong magical barriers… but I can sneak past them." Spring snickered a little bit, before flinching again. It seemed like he expected Vincent to explode on him at any moment. "It can't stop you from entering your own mind. And, magically and spiritually speaking, I am you."

"Good loophole." Vincent commented. "What about when you were Plushtrap?"

"Barry never got that body. He had it that one time when Nightmare showed you, but after that, it was all me." Spring shrank down a little more, but continued onwards. "Um… Mike doesn't hate you." Spring flinched a little more. "About Hope, I mean. He wouldn't hate you." Spring began to shake. "I'm sorry for snooping in your head. I didn't mean to go where I shouldn't! I just want to make you happy!"

Vincent grabbed Spring's shoulders and looked straight into the rabbit's turquoise eyes. "I'm not mad at you. I'm not upset that you looked at my private memories. I'm not even upset that you didn't tell me." The human pulled Spring close to him, embracing the rabbit in a tight hug. "What does upset me is that you think I'm mad. That I would be mad at you." Vincent buried his face in Spring's fur. "I could never be mad at you."

"I'm sorry…" Spring trailed off.

"Don't say sorry if you haven't done anything wrong." Vincent replied, his voice muffled by the rabbit's soft fur. He pulled away from Spring. "Now then, I have someone I need to talk to."

Vincent ran out of his bedroom and up the stairs. He rushed past the animatronics in the main show area, making his way to Mike's office. He arrived and knocked on the door, then bent over to try and regain his breath.

"Come in."

The child pushed the door open and stepped into the office. "Mike… I have something I need to tell you."

Mike looked up from his desk. He was doing paperwork when Vincent came in, but he put it to the side. "What is it Vincent?"

"I…" Vincent started, then hesitated. "You know I did a lot of horrible things before I died, not including the children."

"Yes, why?" Mike asked kindly.

"I only just realized recently, but…" Vincent hesitated again, then sighed and just said it. "I'm the one who killed Hope."

Vincent winced and shrank back, expecting Mike to be at least a little angry. What he didn't expect was the man's response. "I know."

"You-you know?!" Vincent exclaimed in disbelief. "How?"

"Fredbear picked it up the other day. You were so distressed that you were apparently projecting it on a psychic level." Mike explained, standing up from his desk and walking over to Vincent. The man knelt down to Vincent's level.

Mike reached out towards Vincent. The child flinched, expecting pain, but instead, Mike's hand rested on his shoulder. "Listen to me Vincent. I'm not mad at you for killing Hope. I'm sad that it happened, but there is nothing I can do to change the past. From what Fredbear has told me, you did it because it was a better fate than what otherwise would've happened. I don't hate you for it."

"I'm sorry Mike…" Vincent murmured, not looking into the man's green eyes.

In response, the man pulled him into a hug. "We can't change the past."

Mike let go and looked straight into Vincent's eyes. "But we can build our future."

* * *

 **Going to be a while before I can post next chapter, sorry about that.**

 **So, how did you like my introduction of Spring? I've been leaving hints for a while, and I was wondering if anyone picked up on them.**

 **Spring really doesn't want to make Vincent upset, to the point where he stresses himself out and breaks down. But, as Vincent himself said, he could never be mad at Spring.**

 **Now then, a little simplification of Spring's existence. Spring is a part of Vincent's soul that has been split off and has developed personality of its own. They're essentially two parts of one whole person. Vincent has the knowledge, experience, and skill; while Spring has the emotion, compassion, and intuition. That's not to say that Spring is stupid, or that Vincent is emotionless, but that these are the attributes they have more of. So, all you shippers out there, keep this in mind. Spring is literally the same person as Vincent.**


	82. A New Perspective

**-=Spring=-**

I looked up from my drawing. Vincent had finished his picture, and it was much better than mine. "Is that Tali?"

"Yeah." Vincent answered, examining his work of art. "Although Tali's eyes aren't ever one color…"

Vincent had drawn Tali as the white fox that had attempted to chomp his head the night before. Of course, this was mostly because Tali had never had the same appearance between encounters. He had decided to give Tali the golden eyes that the fox had worn, but only because Tali's true eye color was entirely unknown. As with all of the Nightmares, Vincent had drawn Tali fixed up, with white fur and pink highlights on the ears and tail.

"I'm still confused." I muttered, turning my attention back to my drawing. "Is Tali a boy or a girl."

"To quote Tali," Vincent replied, grinning. "Yes."

"Thanks for the clear answer." I pouted, tilting my head to look at the drawing. Mine wasn't nearly as good as Vincent's, being more like a blob than Chica. "I don't think I should draw any more."

Vincent leaned over and looked at my drawing. "Umm…" He tilted his head a bit, squinted his eyes. "Nice… duck…?"

"Yup. Not drawing anymore." I crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it across the room, landing it square in the trash can.

At this, Vincent raised an eyebrow. "That was impressive. Where'd you learn to throw like that?"

I giggled. "Well, you. Oh, and the fact that I'm programmed with perfect coordination. Just like the others."

"Huh." Vincent turned back to his drawing then sighed. "Well, Nightmare got in again."

I stood up and walked around the table to Vincent's side. "Why does it always make you put its eyes over their shoulder?"

"Because it is Nightmare, lord of the ego, master of big-headedness." Vincent replied with a grin.

Suddenly, I froze, then dropped to the ground lifeless.

 **Drawing again, Vincent?**

 _Don't tell it about me!_ I sent to Vincent. _Don't let it know!_

"What else would I be doing?" Vincent answered, acting as if I hadn't spoken at all.

 **Something productive. Like sabotaging the animatronics or gathering a new set of victims.**

"I'm five." Vincent growled in response. "And I'm not going to hurt my family."

 **Age never stopped Barry.**

"Barry is a psycho." Vincent retorted. "Now go away."

 **Hmm…** Nightmare seemed to be searching for something. **I could've sworn…**

"Sworn what?" Vincent asked harshly.

 **Never mind. Have fun.** Nightmare spat, sounding incredibly frustrated.

 _Is it gone?_ Vincent asked shakily. He still wasn't used to telepathic communication.

"Yeah." I answered, standing up from the floor.

"How did you know it was there?" the human was confused. I suppose that was to be expected. Magic was still really strange to him.

"The same way that I know where all the animatronics are." I answered. I paused, then shrank back a little bit. "But, you know, inside your head. I'm sorry."

"Hey, don't be sorry. You've saved me more than once." Vincent reached over and pulled me into a hug. "Digging around in my mind really isn't something you should be sorry for. You have most of my memories, after all."

"Ok…" I bit my lip, then just asked the question. "Why did you kill the others?"

Vincent stiffened, and my eyes widened. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I just wanted to know!"

"No. Don't be sorry. I don't much want to talk about it, but you need to know." Vincent pulled away. "I was working for Antonio Veron. Guy ran a criminal organization, here in the city. He payed me a lot to do his dirty work. Anything from stealing, to… murder." Vincent paused, then continued, his voice dead and flat. "The Puppet shouldn't have died. That was entirely accidental. The others… Tony wanted to use the first Freddy Fazbear's location as a base of operations. The second location had incredibly sophisticated facial recognition tech. Tony didn't want that getting out in the public."

I looked at him in horror of his story. "So you…?"

"Killed ten kids." Vincent confirmed, his voice still flat and emotionless.

"B-but you've been helping them now, right?" I asked. "Y-you're all good, right?"

"I hope so." Vincent seemed so dead inside. It hurt me to see him like this, so broken and lonely.

"You're a good person Vincent." I reassured him, throwing my arms around him. "You've made them happy. You brought them out of the pizzeria. You gave them the ability to interact with the outside world. Not Mike. Not Fritz. Not Percy. Not the Puppet. You."

Vincent buried his face in the fur on my shoulder. "Thank you."

I let go. "I have something I want to show you."

Running across the room, I smiled. I had been waiting to do this for a while. Vincent's drawing skill might not be something that I shared, but I had a couple talents that he didn't.

I grabbed my guitar and sat down on the edge of the stage. Unlike the person whose soul I was created from, I was musically gifted, and watching Bonnie through Vincent's eyes had helped me improve. With a practiced movement, I tuned the guitar and then started to play.

Even though singing was out of the question due to my voice being different, I could tell that Vincent was awestruck. His eyes were open wide in amazement and his jaw was hanging open. My music wasn't anything flashy or impressive, quite unlike most of Bonnie's performances. It was just a little tune that I was playing in order to make Vincent feel better.

With a final note, I finished the tune and put the guitar to the side. "Did you like it?"

"That… was… amazing." Vincent replied, his mouth still wide open. "How did you learn to do that?"

"Wherever he learned, he's really good." A voice came from the main stage behind me.

I turned around to see Bonnie standing there, an appraising expression on his face. "You've got some real talent there Spring."

"Thanks." I replied, blushing under my yellow fur. Bonnie was like a role model to me. He was funny, brave, and protected his family. Not to mention his guitar skill. I looked up to all of the older animatronics, but especially Bonnie.

"Hey, talent is nothing to be embarrassed of buddy." Bonnie walked over and sat down next to me. "You're great, amazing even. You have the musicality that Vincent doesn't."

"I agree with this statement." Vincent announced, closing his mouth. "I can't do any music. Apart from that one time. On Angela's birthday."

"Umm…" I began, then paused. Vincent may not want Bonnie to hear this, but it had nothing to do with Nightmare. It would be lying to say that Vincent had done that alone. "Every time you wore me, you weren't the only one doing things…"

"What does that mean, exactly?" Bonnie asked confused.

"It's technically a mind share. Um. I can't explain it, but I can show it." I said nervously. "But… only Vincent will really see."

"See… what?" Vincent was perplexed. That was understandable, I didn't even understand how it worked. All I really knew was that when it happened, Vincent was in my mind, or I was in his. Normally I was just an observer, but that didn't mean that I couldn't make actions as well.

"Vincent, come sit over here." I suggested. "Proximity may make it easier. I don't really know. In any case, one of us is about to lose control of his body."

"Oh… kay… then…" Vincent walked over to the edge of the stage and sat down next to me.

"So, you want to piggyback on my mind, or do you want me to join you?" I asked, not sure which Vincent would prefer. Something told me that he would understand better if he joined me, but if he didn't, then he would be more comfortable.

"I'll join you. I guess." Vincent replied, still confused.

"Close your eyes." I instructed. "Now… don't try to resist."

I concentrated, closing my eyes. Then, with a mental effort, I _tugged_ , pulling Vincent's mind into mine. Vincent's body slumped, causing him to lean against me. Not surprising, seeing as his mind and soul was now within my body.

 _What. The. Hell._ Vincent practically shouted.

We opened our eyes. _Vincent. Please._

 _Right. Sorry._ Vincent replied. _What the heck._

 _Better, I guess._ I mentally sighed. _Anyways, ta-dah!_

"Spring?" Bonnie asked.

"No." Vincent replied, reaching up and rubbing the side of our head.

"Yes." I chimed in. "Technically."

"Is it… both of you?" Bonnie raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"That's a better question." We both said in unison. I laughed for the both of us.

"God, that's weird." Bonnie commented. "I can tell when each of you is speaking, even though you sound almost identical."

We stood up shakily. Vincent was still trying to assert complete control, when in reality we should have been working in concert. I didn't blame him, he was used to having his body to himself, and when he was using mine he was the one holding the reins. _Vincent! Stop fighting!_

 _How am I supposed to stand up when my body only half obeys me?!_ He was incredibly confused.

With a mental sigh, I tried to explain. _We share one mind, and nothing travels faster than thought. We should try to work together. I'm part of you, this should be easy._

 _Got it. Don't try to fight against you. Work with you. This is your body._ Vincent seemed to be taking this well. Relatively speaking. Some people would have taken it worse.

Within moments the two of us managed to get stabilized. Vincent had more experience doing this than me, so I mostly followed along.

"This is the weirdest feeling." Vincent muttered.

"Not entirely new though." I added.

"Again, super strange. You sound so similar, yet at the same time distinct." Bonnie added in.

"How so?" We both asked.

"And then there's when you two talk together. Umm… how to explain it?" Bonnie looked up at the ceiling in thought, then snapped his gaze back down to us. "Vincent's voice has a harsher edge. More… cynical. As strange as that is for a five year old voice. Spring is more cheerful and innocent sounding. When the two of you speak together, its super disconcerting. It's like if you took both of them and mixed them together. Not double tone, but a combination of cheerful, harsh, cynical, and innocent. It's really, really weird."

"Is it slightly unnerving?" We asked, a grin on our face.

"God. Yes. Yes it is." Bonnie shook his head. "That's straight up creepy."

"What is?"

The two – two? Three? Whatever. – jumped. Bonnie whirled around. "Goldie! Don't do that!"

"Sorry." The golden bear replied in amusement, not seeming apologetic. "But teleporting is my thing. Now then, what's the subject of conversation…?" He slowed down at the end of his sentence, spotting Vincent and me.

"Goldie!" I shouted happily, forgetting for a moment that Vincent was still trying to share my body. I tried to jump up onto the stage towards Goldie. Unfortunately, Vincent wasn't expecting me to try this, and we both crashed to the stage.

"Oww…" We both groaned.

"Woah, what happened here?" Goldie reached down and picked us up off the ground. "Vincent, what exactly…" He stopped, his gaze resting on Vincent's unconscious body sitting slumped on the stage. "What's going on here?"

"Sorry, thought the Puppet had explained it to you. It already went and told the toys." Bonnie sighed. "Spring's got his own personality now. He's still linked to Vince, but apparently he's been a living, thinking soul since Vincent was resurrected."

"Yup!" I confirmed. "Currently we're sharing one mind."

"It's super weird." Vincent added.

Goldie raised an eyebrow. "Well that's odd."

"Yeah, the whole two distinguishable voices for one body thing." Bonnie commented, walking over to Vincent's body and picking it up.

We shivered. "I can still feel that. Wow." Vincent said, shaking our head. "How does that work?"

"No idea." I answered. "But we should get you back to your body."

I concentrated, trying to put Vincent back to his body. There was a tearing sensation, and both of us cried out in pain.

"Oh god, are you okay?" Goldie asked, concerned.

"Putting Vincent back in his body hurts a lot more than I expected…" I muttered, rubbing my head.

"Let me help." Goldie walked over next to Bonnie and closed his eyes.

 _Okay, try now._ The telepathic bear told us.

We concentrated again, Vincent attempting to return to his body while I pushed him. There was a _snap_ , and when I opened my eyes again, Vincent's presence was missing from my mind. He was still there, but he was just farther away. I knew that Vincent felt like he was missing something every time the mind share broke off, but there was no real way to remove that. Not without changing who I was and who he was. It didn't matter. So long as we were together, the two of us could unite.

Vincent's body awoke with a start. "That is SUPER weird."

"You get used to it. I did." I replied, snuggling into Goldie's fur.

"How often did you piggyback on my mind, exactly?" Vincent asked.

"Umm…" I paused in thought. "A better question is how often I didn't. And the answer is whenever you were wearing me."

"Oh. Kay then." Vincent muttered, looking up at the purple rabbit that was cradling him. "You can put me down now."

"Gotcha." Bonnie dropped Vincent.

The human screamed in terror as he plunged towards the stage. Just at the last second, Bonnie caught him again. There was a clatter in the kitchen, and Chica rushed out. "What happened?"

"Bonnie dropped Vincent." I spoke up. "But he caught him again."

"Bonnie!" Chica scolded. "Don't do that!"

"I caught him again Cheeks!" Bonnie protested. "He's fine."

"My whole life flashed before my eyes." Vincent groaned dramatically. "I thought I was gonna dieee…"

"Bonnie, you are never going to be put in charge of these two ever again!" Chica seemed really mad.

"But I-"

"EVER AGAIN." Chica asserted.

"Chica, Vincent's fine. He was never in danger." Goldie said with a sigh. "I would have caught him before he hit the ground. Don't be mad at Bonnie. He was trying to have some fun."

Chica sighed. "I know, but… if anything happened to Vincent…" Chica took a deep breath and calmed down. "I could never forgive myself."

"None of us could forgive ourselves if that happened. Especially after all he's done for us." Bonnie said softly.

I yawned, not deliberately trying to ruin the moment, but doing so anyway. "'m sorry." I murmured. "'m tired."

Goldie looked up at the clock. "Hmm… no wonder. It's well past your bedtimes."

Vincent mumbled something about wanting to be put down, but Bonnie shook his head and handed the human over to Chica. I knew immediately that Vincent wasn't complaining much. He craved affection at least as much as I did, even if he didn't admit it.

 _Tonight will be quite different from usual. Nightmare's more worried about keeping me out than it is about catching you. Unfortunately, it's made things more difficult for you tonight._ I warned Vincent as the two yellow animatronics carried us downstairs to our- no, Vincent's- room.

"I hope you two don't mind sharing a bed. At least, for now. We all have our sections of the backstage areas, but we don't have another bed for Spring." Goldie informed us quietly. We both mumbled in response.

 _How are things more difficult?_ Vincent asked.

 _Paul has been put on the sidelines, and both Aaron and Violet have been replaced by others. Not to mention the fact that you might lose the game at the beginning of the night. Barry'll be there to greet you tonight._ I explained. _As you know, Nightmare cannot directly kill you. You can thank Mari's amulet for that. Sh-it saved your life more than once with that thing._

 _Did you just misspeak in telepathy?_ Vincent asked, clearly amused.

 _Yes…_ Vincent didn't consciously know about who Mari was. I wasn't about to tell him. There were some things that he needed to learn without Nightmare's interference. Apparently Nightmare fully agreed with this, as it had wiped most of what it had told him from his memory. I was fine only because Nightmare hadn't known about my presence. Hopefully it would stay that way, so as to keep Vincent safe from the emotional effects of Nightmare's presence. If it knew…

Well, it was better to not consider that.

"Here we are." Chica announced, snapping both me and Vincent back to reality. She reached out and opened the door, going into the room with Vincent, Goldie, and me. Vincent's bed was big enough for us to have plenty of space each.

The larger animatronics lay us down on the bed. Chica leaned over and gave both of us a kiss on the forehead. After tucking us in, she smiled. "Good night you two."

"G'night Chica." Vincent mumbled.

"G'night Mama." I replied, falling asleep immediately afterwards.

All in all, my first day as part of the family was pretty great.

* * *

 **Hey everyone. Here's your promised chapter, late as I said it would be.**

 **As you've probably noticed, this chapter is from the first person point of view. Specifically Spring's. I won't be changing perspective often, but when I do, Spring's will be first person.**

 **Spring is largely unaffected by Nightmare's intrusion into Vincent's mind. He can sense when it's paying attention, and he can sneak past Nightmare's barriers. Nightmare can't exactly keep a part of Vincent out of Vincent's mind.**


	83. The Game Continues

**What is it?! What is this creature that defies the rules of the game? What keeps getting in?!**

 ** _Wow, Nightmare seems pissed today._**

 ** _What happened?_**

 ** _Hell if I know. It ain't talkin' to me. Still hates me for that whole scenario with ######._**

 ** _Connor, stop cussing._**

 ** _That wasn't cussing this time. Swear on my right hand._**

 ** _You don't HAVE a right hand right now._**

 ** _Right. Wrong thing to say. I meant that I wasn't cussing. No swears, remember? Nightmare hates 'em._**

 ** _Only because you cussed it out the first ten minutes you were here._**

 ** _Yeah, and now our vocabularies are limited to what Nightmare considers 'clean'._**

 ** _Keeping your mouth shut is often the best way to avoid conflict, Connor._**

 ** _Oh hey! It's ####!_**

 ** _Did I not literally just tell you to keep your mouth shut?_**

 ** _Goddammit. Nightmare censored your name. What's up old man?_**

 ** _Why would Nightmare censor my name, but not 'damn', 'dammit', 'goddammit', and 'hell'?_**

 ** _Hell if I know._**

The voice belonging to the "old man" sighed. **_Really?_**

 ** _Maybe Nightmare wants you to be a surprise for Vincent?_**

 **Not just Vincent, but our mysterious intruder and the spectator that looked in last night.**

 ** _Umm… who?_**

 ** _Last night, while Nightmare was talking to ######## and me. Someone, or something, was watching. Well, I say talking to us, I mean that it was ranting while we were conversing on it._** The voice paused. **_Oh, I see. Nightmare has added censors to not only my name, but the other three as well._**

 ** _Two of 'em'll show up tonight anyways. The lovebirds._**

 ** _I wish they would stop acting like they hate each other and just get along._**

 ** _Well, Vi. There's little you can do about this._**

 ** _I know… but she would feel so much better if she could just-_**

 ** _Vincent's here._**

 ** _Partycrasher Aaron. Booo!_**

 ** _Shut up Connor._**

 ** _Booo!_**

 ** _Are you drunk?!_**

 ** _Not yet, but I want to be!_**

 **Shut up.**

 ** _You don't tell me what to do! I can get drunk if I want to!_**

 **Connor Parr. You literally cannot get drunk. Now be silent, lest I decide to rip your face off.**

 ** _Oh._**

 **Yes. Oh.**

 ** _I'll just… go._**

 **Good luck with that while you have a spike in your chest.**

 ** _Please not the spike again! I hate that damn thing!_**

 ** _Too late. Should've learned your lesson earlier._**

 **Ah-ah-ah! You stay right… HERE.**

There was the sound of ripping skin, followed by a scream of pure agony.

 **Oh shut up. You're effectively immortal.**

 ** _The HELL?! It HURTS!_**

 **Of course it HURTS. It's supposed to hurt. What use is punishment that isn't painful?**

 ** _…_**

 **What was that?**

 ** _You want me to be quiet, I'll shut up._**

 **Good. Now, where was I? Oh yes. Vincent has been listening in for the past… hour…**

Nightmare slowly ground his sentence to a halt. **Gods damn it.**

A smile began to grow on Vincent's face, slowly spreading until he felt like the top half of his head would fall off. Then, he broke into sniggers.

 **Damn it all.** Nightmare muttered, appearing out of nowhere into the room. **You heard the whole thing, didn't you?**

"Yup." Vincent answered smugly. "You really lost your temper, didn't you?"

 **I will rend you limb from limb.** Nightmare threatened flatly.

"Uh-huh. Sure." The human replied flatly. "Go right ahead, but just remember that if it stays that way, the game is nulled."

Nightmare grumbled. **Fine. Called my bluff.**

"So. What're you planning to do with me tonight?" Vincent asked, rubbing his hands together.

 **Oh, nothing new. Just making your little pre-night game real. Whatever that intruder was, it's wreaked nothing but havoc with my system.** Nightmare seemed irritated, insofar as could be told. **Nonetheless, onwards to the game.**

Vincent blinked, and the room was replaced. "Again with the dramatic transitions."

 ** _At least they're fun to watch._** A childish voice said from the shadows.

"Oh. This room." Vincent looked around. Back in the hallway with the doorframes and the chair. "Guess you're not Plushtrap then?"

 ** _Plushtrap stole my fun._** The voice pouted. **_I was supposed to be the one who played the game with you! I was!_**

"Sorry Barry. Not my call." Vincent commented. Not that he really felt bad for the child psychopath.

 ** _It doesn't matter. The game begins…_** Barry giggled. **_NOW!_**

Vincent quickly flashed the flashlight on the chair at the end of the hall, revealing a twisted caricature that resembled the old design of Balloon Boy. The body was round and its skin was plastic, or at least seemed like plastic. The head had a pumpkin grin, with rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth, with what looked like a single hinge on the back of its head to keep the top of its head from falling off. The ball jointed arms ended in clawed hands with unnecessarily long fingers. The eyes were orange, but they didn't glow orange like the other Nightmares' eyes, instead the glow was a simple white.

With his ears pricked, Vincent flicked the flashlight off. Barry began to move immediately, laughing demonically.

 ** _This is already really fun!_** Barry said, continuing to laugh. **_I can hear your heart racing! ~_**

"Creepy kid." Vincent muttered, still listening closely.

As quick as lightning, Vincent snapped the flashlight up and turned it on. Barry, who was holding his clawed hands up and was about to pounce, slumped to the floor. **_Aww…_**

"Game over Barry." Vincent announced triumphantly.

 ** _How'd you know?_** The childlike machine whined.

"That's my secret." Vincent replied, not wanting to make Barry try and adapt his tactics.

 **Oh. You won.** Nightmare commented, checking in.

 ** _I didn't even stand a chance! He cheated!_** Barry pouted.

 **No, I don't think he did. There's nothing he could have done to cheat.** Nightmare absentmindedly replied. It seemed to be searching for something, but it couldn't find it. **Hmm… I expected it to be here…**

"Expected what?" Vincent asked, hoping that Nightmare wouldn't find what it was looking for.

 **Not important.** Nightmare declared **On to the main event.**

 ** _But I want to try again!_** Barry shouted like a spoiled child. **_Lemme kill him!_**

 **Not now Barry.** Nightmare commanded, its attention still on something else. **Let's get the show on the road.**

The shadowy entity vanished, and Vincent wound up in the room with the bed. It wasn't even a transition like usual, just one second he was in the room with the chair, then he was in the room that the Nightmares sieged. "Something up Nightmare? Your dramatic flair is missing."

Vincent waited for a few minutes for a response, then sighed. It seemed Nightmare wasn't going to be responding. It really was quite distracted with attempting to locate and lock out Spring, even though it seemed to have exactly zero progress.

There was a creak from the left door, and Vincent quickly dashed over and flashed his flashlight.

 ** _Gah! Why you little-_** A feminine voice cried out in pain. A pair of sapphire blue eyes reeled back from the door.

The human quickly slammed the door closed. Just in time too, as a pair of claws scrabbled at the door. "Now, I've been noticing a theme. All of you guys, and girls, and Tali, are people from my past. My only question is which one are you?"

 ** _What? Don't remember me from my voice alone?_** The voice asked in disbelief. **_Vincent, I thought we had such good times together!_**

"Let's see. Female, likely from Tony's gang. I never had any 'good times', yet there was always one person who insisted that we did." Vincent listed. "So then, Azure. How's death been treating you?"

 ** _Got in one, I see. Why don't you let me in? We can have some fun~._** Azure said seductively.

"In case you've forgotten, I'm literally five right now." Vincent reminded her in a disgusted tone.

 ** _Oh. Ew. Forget that then._** Azure's voice seemed freaked out. **_Still, why don'cha let me in so I can get a good look at you._**

"Not likely, considering that you just tried to attack me. And don't give me the 'lights in your eyes' crap. Aaron's more of a killer than you, and he didn't swipe at me when I accidentally shined the light in his eyes." Vincent retorted. "In any case, you already know what I look like. Nightmare summoned all thirteen of you dead people and lined you up. If anything, I should want to know what you look like, but I don't. Mostly because you tried to kill me."

 ** _You're no fun Vincent._** Azure pouted, rapping on the door. **_I could break down this door right now. The only reason I haven't is because Nightmare is a stickler for the rules and I'm not allowed to open the door after you shine a light on me._**

"Boo hoo. So sad." Vincent replied unsympathetically. "Oh, I've been meaning to ask you or Vi. Is Blaze your actual last name, or is it just a cover?"

 ** _It's just a cover. Neither of us can remember our real last name. It's our actual first names though._** Azure informed him conversationally. **_Oh! I just remembered! I left something in there, can I come in and get it?_**

"Stop trying." Vincent said with a sigh. "I'm not letting you in."

Azure sighed then walked off. Vincent leaned back against the door and sank to the ground. As much as Vincent liked to taunt her, Azure scared him. Not in the same manner as Nightmare, but as a matter of temptation.

The reason for this was because Azure had been particularly attractive in life. Her deep blue eyes. Her, to quote Connor, 'smokin' figure'. Her flawless features. Her lovely blonde hair. Her graceful movement. Azure had been incredibly attractive, and she had known it. While Vi had been sweet and kind, for the most part, Azure was cunning and manipulative. Azure was blessed with incredible looks, and she was fairly agile in her own right, but she wasn't anywhere near as strong as her sister.

The smaller of the two sisters had made up for this by manipulation of many types. Lies, bribery, blackmail, and most often seduction. Azure had used all of these multiple times in order to try and sway Vincent. The first three had flopped, as Vincent was mistrustful, didn't accept bribes, and had nothing to hide. The last one had almost succeeded, and not just once. She had tried multiple times to get him into bed, and the only real reason she had failed was because of Vincent's apathy. Really, Nightmare was the primary reason that Azure's seductive tactics had failed. Rather funny, really, considering that he would have killed a lot more people if she had succeeded.

That hadn't stopped the blonde woman from claiming that Vincent was her boyfriend. At least, for a while. Her claims were very quickly disproved when she started 'dating' another one of the mercenaries.

In any case, Azure had done very little actual work, but had been payed almost as much as her sister. Vincent had never liked Azure much, even though she was certainly attractive. She was far too manipulative for Vincent to consider her anything close to a friend.

But then, he _had_ trained Franklin…

 ** _Hey sleepyhead. Get over to the other door before you get killed._** A voice called out from the closet.

"Tali?!" Vincent sputtered, standing up. "Why are you helping me?"

 ** _Because believe it or not, I have half a heart. Shocker, I know._** Tali retorted. **_In any case, you're the only one who can help._**

"Help with what?" Vincent asked, confused.

 ** _I can't tell you, but I can tell you that you'll probably approve. You're a family man, after all._** Tali sniggered.

"Erm. What?" Vincent was even more confused. What was Tali talking about?

 ** _You'll figure it out. Now go! Before you get yourself killed!_** Tali retreated back behind the sliding doors of the closet.

Vincent rushed across the room to the right door and hesitated. What was it that Azure had said? Something about not being allowed to break the door down…

With a split second's thought, Vincent flashed his flashlight down the hall, then pulled the door shut without looking.

 ** _Oh goddammit._**

Thoughts began to rush through Vincent's mind. Who could it be? Who was at this door? Apparently they had something to do with Azure, but almost every male criminal in the city had had some sort of relations with Azure Blaze.

"So, who're you then?" Vincent asked curiously. The voice didn't sound too familiar, but it rang a couple bells.

 ** _Not really a surprise, I guess. We never talked much._** The voice replied. It was male.

"Can you give me any hints?" Vincent queried, still trying to place the voice to a name.

 ** _Well, the first time we met, you freaked out._** The voice sniggered.

"I freaked out, huh…?" Vincent pondered, then snapped his fingers. "Oh, right. That was because Tony sent you in to test your skills. You looked unassuming and scrawny, but the instant combat started you nearly took me out in one hit. How's it going Matt?"

 ** _Well, I'm dead. Things could be better._** Matthew Carter answered conversationally. **_Not to mention Nightmare has us as its slaves._**

"So how're things going with your girlfriend?" Vincent teased. The last he knew, Matt had been the one that Azure had been 'dating'.

 ** _She's not my girlfriend._** Matt replied angrily.

"Sorry. Sore spot there, I guess. Why not?" Vincent was curious. This might have something to do with what Tali had said.

Matt sighed. **_It was right before she, Paul, and Vi died. She tricked me into taking a job for her. A job that was supposed to be for two people. When I went in, I didn't know this. So I get into the building, and I'm shot almost immediately._**

"Wow, so your girlfriend sent you into a deathtrap." Vincent commented.

 ** _She's not my girlfriend!_** Matt shouted in rage.

"Uh-huh. Last time I saw you, you said you loved her." Vincent taunted.

 ** _That was until she KILLED ME!_** Matt basically screamed.

"You're such a bad liar." Vincent taunted, a grin on his face.

 ** _…I know._**

That made Vincent perk up. "Wait, so you…?"

 ** _I still love her._**

On an impulse, Vincent pulled the door open. The sight in front of him was very different from the other Nightmares, yet it still held a strange creepiness factor.

Matt's body was a rabbit, most likely meant to be a twisted parody of Ben, with its light blue fur and white underbelly. The torso looked a bit long, and the arms were slender, but that was easily explained by the fact that it had four arms. These arms each ended in normal looking hands, but since Vincent was looking for it, he could see that there were retractable claws that would shoot out of the fingertips. The eyes were metal sclera like with the other Nightmares, but the iris was a luminous emerald green. There didn't seem to be the razor teeth of the other Nightmares, but then Matt's face was in better condition, and his teeth were hidden when his mouth was closed. All in all, Matt gave off creepy vibes, while not being particularly intimidating.

That was fitting. Matt had been a very unassuming man in life, with scrawny arms and a goofy grin he generally wore. That didn't keep him from packing a punch that could kill a man instantly, or incapacitate almost anyone.

This wasn't because Matt was particularly strong or fast, but the guy knew exactly where to hit you to disable your nervous system.

When Vincent opened the door, Matt lifted an eyebrow. **_Why? Why open the door? I'm supposed to kill you._**

"Because you're a human being, regardless of what Nightmare wants." Vincent replied. "And frankly, you need to tell someone how you feel. It doesn't get better until you do."

 ** _Th-thanks. I guess._** The four armed rabbit scratched the back of his head.

"Paul's been kicked from the room, and I get the feeling he isn't coming back, so come on, let's go sit on the bed." Vincent invited, walking over to the edge of the bed and sitting down.

After a moment's hesitation, Matt followed him, setting his several hundred pound bulk down next to the small human. **_I could just reach over and impale you right now…_**

"Yes, but you won't. I'm just about the only one who can heal your relationship." Vincent retorted. He grinned. "So, tell me about what's been troubling you."

 ** _God, I never imagined the apathetic mass murderer to be my therapist._** Matt muttered, shaking his head.

"That's DOCTOR apathetic mass murderer to you!" Vincent joked with a grin.

 ** _You're horrible at this._** Matt groaned, falling forward and burying his face in his hands. **_I might as well confess my feelings to a rock._**

"Seriously though. What exactly is going on?" Vincent sobered and asked.

 ** _Well… as I told you, she's kind of the reason that I died. She thinks I hate her._** Matt started. **_In some ways, I wish I did hate her. It would hurt less…_**

"Well, why don't you tell her how you feel?" Vincent asked.

 ** _I… if I did, she might think I'm trying to trick her…_** Matt said sadly. **_She doesn't trust many people…_**

"Ok. OK." Vincent nodded his head in understanding. "I get it."

Before Matt could do anything, Vincent jumped off the bed and ran over to the left door. **_Vincent, what're you…?!_**

Vincent slammed the door open, causing Matt to cry out in warning.

It also caused Azure, who was carefully leaning up against the door, to fall into the room. "Thought as much."

Azure's current body was a nightmarish version of the old toy Chica model. The torso was feminine in form, but the arms and legs were disproportionately long. Similarly to the other Nightmares, her skin was a strange, almost biological material that grew fur, or feathers in this case. Her extremely long arms ended in cruelly curved claws. Her face was what was truly terrifying, as it had the same sinister grin that the toy Chica model had worn. The eyes were a sapphire blue, and right now, they were tearing up as well.

 ** _Y-you don't hate me?_** Azure asked, looking up from the floor at Matt.

 ** _You might be manipulative and sometimes cruel, but you have so, so many redeeming qualities…_** Matt walked over to her and knelt down, extending his arm to help her up. **_You can be kind, and witty, and you make me laugh. You're not just beautiful on the outside, but you can be beautiful on the inside when you try. I've seen you at your worst, and I've seen you at your best; and frankly, I love both equally._**

Azure took his hand and he pulled her up. The female spirit then threw her arms around the blue rabbit, tears in her eyes. **_Thank you._**

 **And so the seductress and the socially awkward freak lived happily ever after. How touching.**

 ** _Nightmare!_** Matt snarled, holding Azure close.

 **Hmm, yes. You know my name. Impressive feat, for one who has been dormant up until now.** Nightmare seemed bored. **Say, weren't you two supposed to KILL Vincent?**

 ** _Your punishments aren't enough to make us kill someone. Especially when that someone has helped us so much._** The rabbit retorted.

The closet doors slammed open and Tali stepped out, their eyes a furious red.

 **Ah. Tali. Talk some sense into these two.** Nightmare commanded.

 ** _Keep it up you two._** Tali said with a thumbs up. **_Oh, and thanks Vincent. When those two were fighting, nobody was happy._**

 **You all attempt to insubordinate me?** Nightmare asked incredulously. **Your punishment will be painful.**

"Shut up Nightmare. Nobody cares about your punishments. There are things more important than self-preservation." Vincent growled.

 **Why you little-** Nightmare began, then stopped. The sound of an alarm clock was audible in the background. **It doesn't matter. Tomorrow is another day.**

* * *

 **So, first things first, a couple notes.**

 **Azure and Matt are both entirely OCs. The other Nightmares are only technically OCs, but these two are entirely original. At least, I hope so.**

 **I said no ships earlier in the story, and I wasn't kidding. Shipping is when you pair someone else's characters together. Since Matt and Azure are both mine, then it (technically) is not a ship. (Also I didn't realize I wanted to do this until, like, halfway through writing it.)**

 **In any case, Hope you guys and gals enjoyed!**


	84. Hiding

The door slowly creaked open and a tall figure slipped into the room. Its gaze swept over the two small figures sleeping on the bed, and a kind smile appeared on its face.

The slender creature leaned over and stroked the fur on the face of the golden rabbit on the bed. Its spiderlike fingers slowly running through the yellow fur. In response, the golden rabbit unconsciously moved into the stroking sensation, a croon in the back of his throat.

With its smile growing wider, the towering creature turned its attention to the other figure on the bed. The white-haired child was sleeping soundly, a triumphant smile on his face.

"Have you defeated your enemies Vincent?" The Puppet whispered almost silently, running the spidery fingers of its other hand through the human's hair.

Vincent mumbled something in response, not even awake to hear the Puppet's question. The Puppet smiled even wider at that, then stood upright again, turning around. "Goodbye you two. See you later. Sleep well…"

With that, the Puppet stepped out of the room, the door clicking quietly shut behind it.

* * *

Vincent woke up with a yawn, stretching his arms and sitting up.

"Ow."

The human quickly drew his right arm back in. "Sorry Spring."

"'s okay." The rabbit replied blearily, also sitting up. The golden animatronic rubbed his eyes. "Just hit me in the ear is all."

"Sorry about that." Vincent apologized again, flinching. The weirdest part was that he had _felt_ that. Not just on his arm, but where he had hit Spring on the ear. It felt like someone had flicked him, right below the earlobe.

Vincent slid his legs off of the bed and stood up. He looked down at himself and sighed. He was still wearing his day clothes from the previous day. With sluggish movements, he walked over to his dresser and opened some drawers. After pulling out a shirt and some pants that the Puppet had kindly downsized for him, he pulled off his current shirt and pants, and put on the new ones.

"Can I open my eyes now?"

Vincent sighed and turned around. "Spring, you didn't need to close them. We're both parts of the same person." The human shook his head. "In any case, I just changed my shirt and pants. I wasn't naked."

"Oh." Spring blinked, his ears drooping in embarrassment. "Sorry."

"It's OK. You were just respecting my privacy." Vincent reassured. "Even if it wasn't necessary."

"Okay then." Spring replied, perking up again. "So what happened last night?"

"Why? Weren't you piggybacking on my mind?" The human asked in response, confused.

"Not this time. Nightmare was searching too hard for me to try it." Spring answered, scratching behind his ear. "Last thing I want is for it to catch me."

"Fair enough." Vincent conceded. "Umm… lemme see. Barry took your place as the minigame before the night. Well, took his place back. He's super whiney. And irritating. And loud."

Spring giggled. "Yeah."

"Anyways, he complained about me 'cheating'. Nightmare basically told him off for that. It was really distracted, trying to find you." Vincent chuckled, then continued. "After that, I met Azure and Matt again. Turns out they still love each other, despite events."

The rabbit closed his eyes and thought for a moment, looking through Vincent's memory. It was almost like Vincent himself was running through his memories, even though he knew that Spring was the one doing it. "Ok. Gotcha. Your memories are more accurate than your recounting. You know that, right?"

"Doesn't surprise me." Vincent replied with a smile.

"My only question is why Matt has four arms…" Spring muttered.

"I don't know. It's creepy though, so I guess it works." Vincent answered, shrugging. "Let's go get breakfast."

"Amen."

The duo made their way upstairs, Spring leaning on Vincent part of the way. The golden rabbit still wasn't good at walking, and Vincent was happy to help him out.

As the two entered the staff longue, they were greeted with the sight of Mike talking on the phone. Vincent immediately hushed Spring's question before the rabbit could do more than ask "Wh-?"

"Yeah, I know. The Fright didn't work out too well." Mike said, probably in response to something. "But we've been going for almost two months now, and things have only gotten better."

There was the sound of someone talking on the other end of the phone. After a moment, Spring sent what he heard to Vincent. " _What'd you do with the old stuff anyway?_ "

"We've revamped everything. All of the animatronics look almost nothing like what they did way back then." Mike replied.

" _Woah, so you've, like, turned them into androids or something?_ " The person on the other side of the phone asked.

"Well… you'll have to see them for yourself." Mike answered hesitantly. "Come by tomorrow, I'll be able to show you."

" _Okay then man. Can't wait to see what you've done with it._ " The other person chuckled, then the phone line went silent.

 _Spring, that was simultaneously the most sneaky and most awesome thing you've ever done._ Vincent sent mentally, in awe that the rabbit had heard that much.

 _Fritz gave me really good ears_. Spring replied sheepishly.

"Charley…" Mike muttered with a sigh, putting his phone in his pocket. He only then seemed to notice the two diminutive figures that had entered the room. "Oh, hello you two! How are you doing this morning?"

"We're just going to get breakfast." Vincent answered.

"I heard that Chica's making bacon and eggs today." Mike said conversationally.

"On days like these, I envy you guys…"

Vincent looked around, then up. Right above him, with a look of sadness, was Jeremy. The redhead looked down at the two small figures and smiled. Mike nodded at the ghost, then turned his attention to the children. "Jeremy's going to be your caretaker today. Just to make sure that Spring is safe when the general public is exposed to him."

"We get our own bodyguard?" Vincent asked with a laugh.

"Hey, _Spring_ gets his own bodyguard. You're just along for the ride." Jeremy teased, floating down to 'land' on the floor. "I'll just be watching for the most part. But if a problem arises, then I'll help out."

"So, hypothetically speaking, what if I need you to open something?" Vincent queried, a mischievous grin on his face.

"Well tough luck buddy." Jeremy retorted. "I'm Spring's bodyguard, not yours."

The conversation came to an abrupt halt when Chica walked into the staff lounge, two plates in her hands. "Oh, there you two are! I was wondering what had happened when you didn't show up at the kitchen. Here are your breakfasts."

Chica set the two plates down on a table. "Unfortunately, I won't be able to be with you today. Mondays are very busy."

"Ok Chica." Spring replied, walking over to the table and hopping up onto one of the seats. He grabbed his fork and dug in. "Mmm… thanks for breakfast."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." Chica said with a smile. She paused for a second, likely checking her internal clock, and then turned to go. "We're opening soon, see you later!"

Mike checked his watch. "I'm off too. Got a lot of paperwork to do."

Chica and Mike both left the staff lounge, leaving Spring, Vincent, and Jeremy. Vincent walked over to the table and took a seat. Picking up his fork, the grey eyed human dug into his breakfast. The eggs were nice and fluffy, with just the right amount of salt and pepper, while the bacon was crispy without being overcooked. Just another example of Chica's excellent cooking.

"Something happening today? You ate really quickly." Jeremy commented once Vincent finished.

"Oh! Angela's going to be back today." Vincent replied, getting up and running to the main show area.

He was just in time to see Fritz unlocking the doors. The man turned around and raised an eyebrow. "You seem to be in a hurry. Normally you wait until after opening time to enter the public areas."

"Angela's going to be here today, so I wanted to be down here to greet her." Vincent explained.

"Angela's the kid who turned out to be your niece, right?" Fritz asked.

"Yup. She also really likes Spring. He's her favorite." Vincent confirmed, going over to his little drawing corner. He had a small table to himself, as nobody else ever came over to use it. Angela had been the first person to go anywhere near him while he was drawing. Apart, of course, from the animatronics, Mike, and Fritz.

Vincent grabbed a piece of paper and some drawing tools and immediately set himself to drawing. He had decided on a picture of both Azure and Matt. With a little altering of proportions and a bit of fixing up, he managed to draw Azure as she would be without Nightmare's dark tweaks. Matt was a little more difficult, mostly because his current form had four arms. In order to make it more normal, Vincent had decided to omit the extra arms.

 _Are you going to draw Barry?_ Spring asked, hopping into Vincent's mind. The rabbit had a much easier time jumping from his body to Vincent's than Vincent did jumping to Spring's body. Not surprising when one took into account the amount of practice Spring had.

 _Nah. He's not worth my effort._ Vincent replied, continuing to draw.

 _That's probably-_ Spring suddenly cut off his communication.

 _"Spring?_ Vincent cast out to try and locate the rabbit.

 **Oh. You're drawing again.**

That made sense now. The last thing Spring wanted was for Nightmare to catch him. That could lead to problems upon problems.

"Yes, I'm drawing again." Vincent retorted, slightly irritated at Nightmare's interference.

 **Hmm… where is it?** Nightmare demanded, sounding genuinely confused.

"Where is what?"

 **The intruder… it keeps evading me. Do you know where it is?** Nightmare must've been really desperate if it was asking Vincent.

"Not a clue." The human lied, going back to his drawing.

 **Damn.** The dark creature sighed. **I'll go.**

Just like that, Nightmare was gone again. Spring's presence returned to Vincent's mind. _It's desperate. If it doesn't get me soon, it's going to take it out on you._

 _It's not catching you._ Vincent adamantly stated. _I won't let it._

 _Thanks Vincent_

Vincent resumed his drawing. Matt's eyes were emerald green, while Azure's were sapphire blue. Azure was the shorter of the two, but her form was more aesthetically pleasing. Matt was taller, but his scrawny limbs made him unthreatening.

"Hey Vincent!"

He looked up to see a familiar face. Angela was walking over with an excited expression. Vincent quickly put the drawing away and got up from the table. "Hi Angela!"

"You won't believe what I saw the other day! Spring was back, but he was little!" The girl hurriedly explained. "Can you help me find him again today?"

 _You ready bud?_ Vincent mentally asked Spring.

 _Yeah. I'm in the Prize Corner. Not much activity in here today._ The rabbit replied, obviously excited.

"OK, let's go!" Vincent answered, the mental conversation having taken only a fraction of a second.

"Where should we look first?" Angela mused, looking around the main show area. Her excitable attitude had lessened somewhat, but she was still enthused.

"Maybe he's in the Prize Corner?" Vincent suggested.

"Let's check there first." Angela announced, running off.

Vincent ran after the girl, his shorter legs meaning he had to try twice as hard to keep up. Fortunately, Angela wasn't running particularly fast, and it wasn't very far to get to the Prize Corner.

The two children reached the Prize Corner and looked around. It didn't take long for Vincent to spot the golden yellow pair of ears poking up from behind the Puppet box. With a snigger, Vincent nudged Angela and pointed towards the rabbit. The girl gasped and her eyes widened in anticipation.

Angela walked around the Puppet's box and practically squealed in delight. "I knew it!"

The girl grabbed Spring and hugged him tightly. "I knew it I knew it I knew it!"

 _Help me._ Spring pleaded mentally. _She's crushing me._

"I think you're crushing him." Vincent commented.

"Oh, right. Sorry." Angela loosened her hug, but didn't let go. "Where have you been Spring? And why are you little now?"

In response Spring chirped and tilted his head. He still wasn't going to talk in public. Not verbally, at least.

"Oh it doesn't matter! You're so cute and fluffy!" Angela squeezed Spring tighter again, then let him go.

Spring crooned happily and nuzzled against Angela's shoulder.

 _You having fun?_ Vincent asked mentally, laughing inside.

 _Yes._ Came the shameless answer eventually.

Vincent giggled and walked over to Spring and Angela. With a mischievous grin, he reached over and scratched behind Spring's left ear. The rabbit unconsciously began leaning into Vincent's touch, his right leg thumping on the ground in reflex.

Angela stared in surprise for a few moments, then started laughing. Spring began crooning happily at the scratching sensation behind his ears, then seemed to notice what he was doing. He quickly broke away from the contact, shooting Vincent a quick glare. _Don't DO that!_

 _What, it doesn't feel good?_ Vincent teased back.

 _It's embarrassing!_ Spring protested. _…although I do like it…_

Vincent giggled again, petting the top of Spring's head. "He's very soft."

Angela opened her mouth to talk, but was interrupted by Jeremy running into the Prize Corner. "Alright, come on, back here, now."

The redhead grabbed Vincent and Spring by the shoulders and shoved them behind the Puppet box. He reached over and pulled Angela after them, and waved his hands through the air, creating a magical disturbance.

"What's going on?!" Angela protested, looking at the ginger stranger who just pulled her into the corner.

"Little problem with some people who aren't very nice." Jeremy answered, then realized who he was talking to. "Umm. Sorry for pulling you in here. I'm Vincent's…"

"Cousin." Vincent cut in, giving Jeremy a look that said no arguing.

"Cousin." Jeremy immediately agreed. "I'm looking after him for today. There are some mean people who are after us because… reasons, and they just came into the building."

As if on cue, two suited figures entered the Prize Corner. Vincent gasped in recognition. Immediately, Jeremy put his hand over Vincent's mouth, and put the index finger of his other hand to his lips to silence the other two.

One of the men, in a pinstriped suit, looked around the Prize Corner. "Frankie better have given us good info."

"You know he hates to be called that." The other man, the one with the fedora, commented. "Although he hasn't been around for a few days. Think he ran?"

"Franklin doesn't run from much. He's probably floating through the sewers or lying in several alleyways right now." Pinstripe replied, waving the other off. "Now start looking. Tollini had a penchant for stealth, according to Franklin."

"I still think he was lying." Fedora muttered, walking over to the Puppet box and looking down at it. The lid was closed, but he popped it open and looked down at the contents of it. "Oh, here's that creepy marionette thing. You remember back in '87 when this thing would pop out and give people presents?"

"I'm just glad that the old place was shut down. Those things were creepy." Pinstripe answered, scanning the room. "Stop goofing around and actually look. He could be anywhere."

Fedora shrugged and closed the Puppet box, going around it to look behind. The four hiding behind the box held their breaths. The suited man gave the little alcove a once-over, then turned back to his companion. "Nothing here. The place is completely free of Tollinis."

"Damn. Maybe come back in a couple days. Come on. Let's get out before those robots show up." Pinstripe scanned the room one last time then left, Fedora in tow.

Vincent, Angela, and Jeremy let out a collective breath. Then Angela opened her mouth and asked a question that made Jeremy cringe. "Why were they talking about my last name? And how did that man not see us?"

"I have no idea." Jeremy lied. "I need to talk to Vincent real quick. Alone."

"Okay." Angela answered, biting her lip. It seemed like she was going to ask another question, but she knew that it was better to keep her mouth shut for now.

Jeremy grabbed Vincent's shoulder and pulled him to another corner of the room. "Vincent, I need your help. I would KILL for a pizza right now."

"Then go ask Chica for something to eat." Vincent stated simply, slightly confused.

"Okay, you don't seem to understand. What am I?" Jeremy tried again.

"A ghost…?" Vincent raised an eyebrow.

Then it clicked. Vincent's eyes widened. "Holy crap. You're alive again."

"I don't _think_ so. But, well." Jeremy gestured to himself. "I'm corporeal, I'm starving, and I seriously want to take a shower after twenty three years of collecting dust. The only odd thing out is the fact that I can't feel my heart beating, and I've been holding my breath throughout this whole conversation and I'm not blue and dying."

"But you did magic back over there." Vincent noted, gesturing at the Puppet's box. "You made us invisible."

"I know. That's what's bugging me." Jeremy sighed. "I'm currently trying to turn incorporeal again, but it's not working. I guess it's something to do with technique, but I can't get it to work out."

"Maybe you should ask the Puppet about it." Vincent suggested, shrugging. "I don't understand magic. Until then, be glad that you're effectively alive again."

"Yeah." Jeremy murmured in response. "I just can't help but wonder…

"What will the others think?"

* * *

 **I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I last posted. I've had a combination of writer's block and the fact that Enter the Gungeon has consumed my soul keeping me from writing.**

 **You won't be getting any answers on Jeremy's sudden corporeality for a while. Just be glad it's here and that it gives us back our redheaded adrenaline junkie.**


	85. Night Five

**_You better not hurt him!_**

 ** _Calm down Violet. I won't kill Vincent._**

 ** _That's good. Cause if you did, we'd probably be tearing you apart._**

 ** _I get it Connor. You don't like me._**

 ** _We all have reasons to hate you. Some of us just don't know how to let it go._**

 ** _Hey! Why are you staring at me?!_**

 ** _Connor…_**

 ** _Okay, fine. I may be a bit vengeful._**

 ** _A bit?_**

 ** _…A lot._**

 ** _Much better._**

 ** _You're not much better Aaron. When I got here, you were ####### ANGRY._**

 ** _At least I don't cuss like a twelve year old on the internet._**

 ** _What do you know about the internet?_**

 ** _I may have been dead for thirty years, but I haven't been oblivious._**

 ** _Speaking of, who's been here longer, you or Barry?_**

 ** _Barry was here when I got here._**

 ** _So Barry's the longest lasting resident of this hellhole? Good to know. Anyone know how long he's been here?_**

 ** _Almost fifty years now._**

 ** _Shut up old man. Nobody wants your input._**

 ** _Connor, you really need to control your temper. And your tongue._**

 ** _Aaron the spoilsport swoops in again!_**

 ** _Just stating the truth here._**

 ** _You should be more like Tali and deal less with the truth._**

 ** _Excuse me?_**

 ** _You're dead._**

 ** _Did you just call me a liar, Connor Parr?_**

 ** _Yes. No… maybe._**

 ** _Aaron's right. You do need to learn when to shut the hell up._**

 ** _That's not possible. Aaron's never right._**

 ** _I need to leave._**

 ** _Yeah, get outta here old man._**

 ** _Alright, on the spike you go._**

 ** _Gotta catch me first!_**

 _Snick._

 ** _Oh goddammit._**

 ** _Shut up. Vincent's here._**

 ** _Just let me stick him on the spike. Nightmare left it here for us for this exact reason._**

 ** _Do it quietly._**

 _Rrriip._

 ** _OH GODDAMN IT HURTS._**

 ** _I said quietly!_**

 ** _TELL THAT TO MY INCREDIBLE AGONY._**

 _Smack!_

 ** _Okay, I deserved that._**

 ** _Now shut up!_**

Vincent clambered out of the bed, grabbing the flashlight off of the bedside table. Scanning the room, he sent a mental message to Spring. _Spring, you there?_

 _Yeah._ Came the response. _Once Nightmare tunes in, I need to go silent._

 _Understood._ Vincent scanned the room, looking for the shadowy entity that usually greeted him as he entered the dream realm. "Now where is it?"

No response. Strange. Usually Nightmare would have showed up with a clever comment by now. Maybe it was still looking for Spring? Or maybe something else. Who knew the ways of the immortal?

The human walked over to the left door and pushed it open. "Hello? Anyone there?"

Again, no response. Vincent walked down the hallway to the corner and turned right. There was absolutely nothing here. Weird.

Making his way to the doorway on the left, Vincent peeked into the room there. It was the corridor with the chair at the end, and, true to form, Barry was sitting on the chair. The plastic monster was sitting slumped over and inactive, but his eyes were still glowing white.

 ** _Hi Vincent! Did Nightmare give you permission to come visit?_**

"No, but it hasn't shown up at all tonight." Vincent replied. "I figured I might as well come over here to play the game anyways."

 ** _Really?_** Barry seemed excited. **_It won't be 'official', though. Nightmare has to watch over for you to get the two hours bonus._**

Vincent shrugged. "I don't care. Anything is better than just sitting there and waiting for Nightmare to show up."

 ** _I agree! I have to sit there and do nothing most of the time, and it's BOOORIIIING!_**

"Boredom sucks. Especially when you have ADHD." The human sighed. "Fun."

 ** _ADHD sucks sometimes._**

That made Vincent raise an eyebrow. "You have ADHD too?"

 ** _Yeah. That's why I sometimes…_** Barry actually seemed upset for once. **_Do things…_**

The human raised his eyebrows in surprise. "That's… interesting."

 **Ah. You two are already in place.** Nightmare cut in, its dark form appearing in the room. **That's good. Get to it then.**

Vincent looked up at Nightmare, scowling. "We were having a conversation."

 **And now you're playing a game.** Nightmare growled.

 ** _Let's start then!_** Barry exclaimed, seeming to forget the earlier conversation.

The room suddenly went dark, forcing Vincent to smack his flashlight a couple times to get it to work. When the flashlight flickered on again, Barry's form vanished into one of the doorways at the sides. The demonic child giggled, a deep, ominous noise.

With slowly measured breaths, Vincent turned off his flashlight and waited. True to form, Barry clomped over to the X directly in front of him and stopped, likely rearing back to lunge. Flicking the flashlight on, Vincent caught the plastic creature in the act.

 ** _Aww, again?!_**

"Better luck next time." Vincent said primly, shrugging.

 ** _Will you come by to play tomorrow night?_** Barry asked excitedly. **_And the night after?_**

"Sure, if I can." Vincent answered warily. "Would there be something stopping me?"

 ** _Well, the night after tomorrow-_**

 **That's enough. The game is won.** Nightmare butted in, glaring down at Vincent and Barry. **Back to the room with you, Vincent.**

"Barry was talking." Vincent scolded. "You don't interrupt someone who's talking."

 **I do as I please, mortal.** The dark entity snarled. **Now return to the room.**

The shadows from Nightmare's body began to move across the room, moving like a dark ooze. The darkness blanketed all light and color from sight, then began to recede. As the shadows vanished, the room changed. He was back in the bedroom.

Almost immediately, there was a cruel sounding laugh. It wasn't unlike Nightmare's although it seemed more… human. It was less ephemeral, more solid. Like it came from actual vocal cords instead of from magic.

"Well that's not ominous." Vincent muttered, looking around the room. The closet seemed empty, and none of the triplets were on the bed.

 _Nightmare's gone._ Spring informed, his presence appearing in Vincent's mind. _It's trying to figure some things out._

 _Like what you are?_ Vincent asked, curious.

 _Probably._ Spring confirmed. _Although it's not just focusing on me._

 _Weird._ Vincent commented, cutting off the conversation.

With quiet steps, Vincent walked over to the left door and put his ear up to it. There was no sound of breathing, so he quickly shined his flashlight.

A horrifying visage with monstrous red eyes stared back at him.

 ** _Wait-_**

In a panic, Vincent slammed the door shut, breathing heavily. He hadn't gotten a good look at it, but it had been terrifying. Innumerable teeth, crimson eyes, and a cruel scowl. It had also had a decaying, brown-yellow color scheme, which reminded him of Springtrap. Irrationally so, but a reminder nonetheless.

"What. The. Hell. Was. THAT?!" Vincent practically screamed.

 ** _Sounds like Vincent saw him._**

 ** _You heard that over Connor's whining?_**

 ** _This HURTS. It hurts like hell!_**

 ** _You've been impaled before. You're fine._**

 ** _Doesn't make it painless._**

 ** _You'll get used to it. It's not the same slow suffering of suffocation._**

 ** _Ouch._**

 ** _Oh… I forgot about that._**

 ** _No you didn't, you ####._**

 ** _Okay… maybe I didn't._**

Vincent shook his head. The Nightmares' conversations were still audible, funnily enough. Even when they weren't allowed anywhere near him, they still had an impact on how the night went.

There was the sound of heavy footsteps, followed by another demonic laugh. And, surprisingly, muffled swearing.

"Does he not _want_ to laugh or something?" Vincent muttered in thought, going over to the other doorway and checking with his flashlight.

 ** _Something like that._**

With a cry of terror, Vincent whirled around and stumbled back through the doorway, falling on the ground.

 ** _I'm sorry Vincent. I didn't mean to scare you._** The massive creature from the hallway was there, its crimson gaze resting on him.

Now that he got a better look at it, it was, while still intimidating, somewhat familiar. It reminded him of the old Fredbear suit, being fat in the gut, with a bulky head and tombstone teeth. Except the teeth were entirely different, being more than he could count, and razor sharp. The head had rips and tears in it, with wires poking out of the eye sockets. Not to say that those sockets were vacant, as they held the metal orbs that all the other Nightmares save Barry had. The lights on said orbs were crimson, reminiscent of Nightmare's, but where Nightmare had black pupils with white rings around them, this creature had solid red eyes. Lastly, the monster had massive claws, larger than any of the others thus far.

But the voice was what scared Vincent most.

In fact, it was a voice that had given him ordinary nightmares back in his first life.

"T-tony?!"

 ** _I note how you recognized me well before any of the others._** The monstrous creature commented dryly. **_Although I probably shouldn't be surprised._**

"B-but..? How…?" Vincent sputtered, slowly rising back to his feet.

 ** _Nightmare had me in its sights for a long time._** Tony said with a sigh, stretching the 'long' out. **_Around… ten years ago, it came to me directly. It was angry that I had begun to deconstruct the Gentlemen, after all, their purpose had been served. It had offered me a similar deal to what it told you. Kill myself, or it would kill me. Naturally, I refused. Before I could even wake, I died from a fear-induced heart attack._**

"So Nightmare killed you…?" The human asked.

 ** _More or less. After that, my son took over the 'family business'._** He spat this last as if it were poison. **_He's a damn fool. He wants to be the leader of the most feared criminal syndicate in the history of the city. In order to do that, he wants the most skilled fighter the streets have ever known._**

 ** _He wants you._**

"But I've been dead for the past sixteen years!" Vincent protested. "The only people who I ever taught are Franklin and Marcus, and neither of them was ever as good as me."

 ** _That's correct. He hired in Franklin to teach his thugs, but Franklin is not a fighter. He also tried… multiple methods to try and draw you in, and he was nearing the point where he believed you were dead. Once Franklin came in with the news that you weren't…_** The large machine sighed again. **_That idiot will be trying to drag you in again._**

"He won't be able to."

 ** _He has many ways to persuade. And he…_** Tony's expressive eyes closed in concentration. **_He… I can't remember. But anyways. There are other things that we must talk about. I know you have questions._**

"Um… yeah. Like why you sent Aaron after me. And the real reason that you wanted me to murder ten children to shut down a pair of cruddy pizzerias." Vincent grew angry at the memory of this.

 ** _You must understand. In life, I was apathetic. All I cared about was my 'career' and my small family._** Tony began apologetically. **_You were a threat to my business. When you completed that trade, I sent Aaron to make certain you wouldn't tell anyone. He was to coerce and threaten you, but not kill you. Imagine my surprise when I learn that you not only managed to avoid his detection, but to kill him. In retrospect, having him threaten your brother was a mistake._**

"So you hired me?"

 ** _So I hired you. I admire spirit and courage, even in those who should be my enemy. As for the children..._** Tony shrugged. **_I thought that it would be the only way to shut them down, and to my distorted mind, the cost was worth it. I had heard that the animatronics were incredibly advanced. In fact, I heard that they had incredibly advanced facial recognition software. I couldn't have that getting out to the public…_**

The hulking creature spread his hands wide. **_I've done so many horrible, horrible things in my life. I've made many others into similarly horrible monsters. All I can do is ask you for forgiveness._**

"Seeing as my own victims are forgiving me…" Vincent smiled. "I would be a hypocrite to say that I won't try."

Tony smiled, as best as he could without much ability to move his face. **_Thank you Vincent._**

"So, uh, what now? We have another couple hours before Nightmare kicks me out." Vincent scratched the back of his head, still not quite comfortable with this monstrous creature. Tony as a human had been intimidating, now he was terrifying.

 ** _Why not come visit the others?_** Tony invited. **_It's impossible to get there without using some form of control over the dream realm, but control over the dream realm is something that those of us stuck here have._**

The massive robot reached out its hand, and after a moment's hesitation, Vincent took it. The room warped for a moment, eventually coming back into focus in a similar, yet completely different room. The bed was in the same place, the closet still had the same sliding doors, even the little purple robot was still there. The differences, however, were staggering.

For starters, there were twelve mechanical monstrosities scattered throughout the room.

That wasn't the only difference, however. The dimensions had changed, making the room much larger than before, to better accommodate the metal giants. In addition, the doors on the sides of the room were gone, leaving nothing but blank wall. Lastly, there was a giant metal spike sticking out of the wall.

With someone on it.

 ** _Oh look, Vincent's here._** The slightly angry fox on the spike announced. **_Wait wait wait, Vincent. Is. Here._**

 ** _Vincent? Here?_** Violet looked up from the game of checkers she was playing with Paul. **_Oh my gosh! He is here!_**

Vincent backed up as a towering chicken stomped towards him, her arms outstretched. "Vi…"

Before Vincent could do more to protest, Violet picked him up and hugged him tightly. **_I thought we wouldn't get to see you again!_**

"That's… great!-" Vincent managed to get out. "Now… can't… breathe!"

 ** _Oh. Sorry._** Violet dropped the human, causing him to land on his back.

"Please… stop doing that." Vincent requested, gasping for breath.

 ** _Right… sorry…_** Violet rubbed the back of her head in shame.

 ** _Hey Vincent! Could you get me off this damn spike?_** Connor called out from his position pinned to the wall.

 ** _Don't touch him._** Tali called across the room. **_He's stuck there until he manages to get himself off._**

 ** _Damn mimic…_** Connor reached forward and grabbed the spike in front of him, slowly pulling himself to the end of the metal protrusion.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Vincent asked.

 ** _Way, way more than you think._** Was Connor's answer. He paused in thought, then amended his statement. **_Actually, your death probably hurt more. Never mind._**

 ** _Vincent's death probably takes the cake for most painful._** Aaron chimed in. **_Look at the rest of us. Most of us died instantly, slowly but less painfully, or in our sleep._** This last was said with a glare at Tony.

 ** _Tell me Aaron, in my position, would you have told Nightmare that you would go commit suicide?_** Tony retorted calmly.

 ** _…No._**

 ** _Then do not judge my death, it was not of my choosing._** The massive golden bear shrugged. **_Damn. I almost forgot._** Tony pointed at the shadows beneath the bed. **_Don't grab its attention._**

"Nightmare?"

Immediately, the shadows under the bed began to seep out and form up into a towering pillar of darkness. Two blood red eyes snapped open and scanned the room. **Who said my name? Why was a living being saying my name in this room?**

The reason the dark creature didn't spot Vincent was because Tony had taken the precaution to move Vincent out of the extradimensional space that the Nightmares called home. He could still see the room, but now it was like a set of phantasmal images, superimposed over the ordinary room.

 ** _A living being couldn't enter this room, Nightmare._** Tony replied with open hostility.

 ** _Yeah, it's not possible for anyone to get in._** Connor added, finally managing to pull himself off the spike. **_Victory!_**

With a cruel snarl, Nightmare levitated Connor back onto the spike. **What a shame. Now you need to do it all over again. How sad.**

 ** _You. Suck._** Connor shouted angrily.

 ** _I need to go. He'll be expecting me to show up in the closet or on the bed._** Tony vanished.

Immediately, Tony reappeared, again just as a phantasmal image. **No. Time is nearly up. Don't bother. I'll attend to our… guest.**

Uh-oh.

True to its word, Nightmare manifested itself in Vincent's room. **So. You've beat night five.**

"Yeah. And?" Vincent wasn't feeling very cooperative, especially towards Nightmare.

 **Just a warning. I feel as if it is necessary.** Nightmare said indifferently. **You won't survive the next two nights.**

"Uh-huh. Gotcha. Didn't you say that about night five too?" Vincent asked cockily.

 **The instant Antonio opened his mouth I knew he had done absolutely nothing.** Nightmare growled. **Night five would have been a challenge. If Tony weren't useless.**

"At least Tony has a heart." Vincent retorted.

 **Hmm, quite. Yet what does an organ that pumps blood have to do with worth? He has not done his job, thus he is worthless.** Nightmare seemed particularly unamused.

Vincent didn't have a good answer, so he said nothing.

 **Nothing to say? Just as well. I'll see you tomorrow night. I have a couple, shall we say, surprises, lined up for you. But for now…**

 **Tomorrow is another day.**

* * *

 **Here we are with night five!**

 **You may or may not have figured it out by now. But here's the big reveal on who N. Fredbear is, and, surprise surprise, it's Vincent's old employer. Small world, huh?**

 **We'll get back into Jeremy's current corporeal situation next chapter.**


	86. Charley

Sometimes, Vincent felt the need to just go and draw.

Not anything in particular, but just to draw.

It hadn't happened often, if at all, in his first life. If it had, it was lost in his memories. But since his resurrection, he occasionally just needed to go and draw something.

Today was such a day.

So here he was, sitting at his own little table in the corner, drawing his nightmare.

Tony wasn't really _that_ bad. In fact, as a person, Tony was mellow and kind. Kind of like that intimidating uncle, that you're scared of at first, but turns out to be an awesome person. Not to say Vincent knew what that was like, but the analogy still made sense.

Drawing Tony actually made Vincent feel better about it. As if the simple act of putting the creature on paper in a tamer form made him friendlier. It was irrational, but it helped.

Vincent started with the basic Fredbear outline. The old one, back in the sixties. That old thing had been more than slightly intimidating, with wide staring eyes and a bulk that was more than five times the size of your average child. The general outline, however, wasn't as scary as the suit as a whole, just large. From there, he gave Tony a knowing, yet not unkind, look. The red eyes were, like Violet's, gentle; as opposed to Nightmare's downright terror inducing orbs. It would have been somewhat cruel to put the massive tombstone teeth that the original Fredbear had on Tony, so instead Vincent sized them down to be more reasonable.

He was just putting the finishing touches on it when Mike walked up to his drawing table.

"Vincent, I need to tell you about some plans I have in place for today." The older man began sternly.

"Am I in trouble?" Vincent asked, nervous. He couldn't recall doing anything wrong, but he might have done something on accident. Plus, that tone never meant anything good.

"What?" Mike was confused, then he realized what he did wrong. "Oh, no. You've done nothing wrong. It's just that, well, there's an important guest that's going to visit today, and it would be best if you avoided contact with him. Period."

"Why?"

"He's the guy who owned Fazbear's Fright." Mike answered with a sigh. "It's not that I don't want him to work here, but he's a bit… off."

"I think I remember. Wasn't he on some kind of drugs?" Vincent snickered.

"No. No he was not." Mike gave Vincent a disapproving glare. "He's obsessed with the past of this place. The animatronics, Jeremy, and, of course, you. He doesn't know anything for certain about the murders, but he does know that there was a body inside Springtrap, and that we've revamped Spring. I can't keep Spring away from him, but I can make sure that he doesn't find out about you."

"Well, if he wants to learn about this place, why don't you just tell him the whole story?" Vincent asked, genuinely curious.

Mike sighed. "I want to. But the thing is, Charley, as nice as he is, has a tendency to prattle on about the most random of things. If he learns this place's whole story, especially about you, he'll probably blabber it to someone. I'll probably be forced to tell him about the ghosts, which brings me to another point. Jeremy also has instructions to avoid him."

"Is this about his current condition?"

"Yes. Until the Puppet comes up with a solution, he's to avoid Charles White."

 _Wait, what had the Puppet said about Jeremy's corporeality again?_ Spring asked, digging through Vincent's memories of the event.

 _Wait-_

* * *

The Puppet had been surprised when Jeremy had _walked_ up to it. As opposed to, you know, floating.

"What's going on…?" It asked, looking between the trio. It was after closing time, thankfully, and Jeremy, Vincent, and Spring were in the Prize Corner.

"That's what we're here to ask." Jeremy answered, gesturing to himself. "I'm corporeal again, and not just that, but I'm hungry too."

"Really?" The Puppet's eyes widened in surprise. "Describe your current state. Please."

"Umm…" The redhead scratched the back of his head. "I'm solid. I have nerves again, fully functional, mind you; I checked. My full five senses are functioning, although my sense of touch is slightly numbed. Not by much, however. I feel more or less identical to how I did in my first life, minus breathing and a beating heart. I also don't have the scars, but that's because this isn't my… base form. It's draining my energy, but not more so than normal; funnily enough."

"So the only strain upon your energy reserves is the shape change?" The Puppet clarified.

"Yeah. Oh, and I'm tired. Not excessively so, but enough to remind me that I'm mortal." Jeremy shrugged. "It's not _bad_ as such, but I would like to be able to go back to my incorporeal form."

"It's a matter of options, yes?" The Puppet asked absentmindedly. It was clearly thinking. "What happened when you first changed to this current state?"

"Well, those two goons had just showed up. You know, the morons who opened your box earlier today." Jeremy recounted. "Anyways, those two had just showed up, so I went to the Prize Corner to try and get Vincent to safety. Next thing I know, I'm walking instead of levitating, and I grabbed Vincent to drag him behind your box."

"Hmm…" The Puppet put its elbow on the edge of its box and rested its chin on its hand. "Can you describe your emotional state at the time of the thugs entering the building?"

"I was worried. Panicked, even. I didn't want them to hurt Vincent." Jeremy explained.

"You _do_ care!" Vincent joked, laughing.

"Hey, if those goons killed you, I wouldn't have someone to tease." Jeremy retorted, flicking Vincent behind the ear.

The Puppet stayed silent for a bit, adding things together in its head, then it nodded as if it had been expecting Jeremy's answer. "So it happened in a time of distress?"

"You could say that, yes." Jeremy replied, slightly confused.

"Interesting. I'll study this to see what we can do about it. Are you able to do magic whilst in this form?"

"Yes, actually. And it's as strong as usual, too."

"Hmm… I can't do anything for you now, but I should have an answer in a couple days." The Puppet informed. "For now though, you're effectively a living being."

* * *

 _-before you cause a flashback._ Vincent finished belatedly. _Well, too late now._

 _Sorry…_ Spring apologized, obviously ashamed.

 _It's okay, just disorienting._ Vincent assured.

"You okay Vincent? You seem kind of… out of it." Mike asked worriedly.

"I'm fine. Just Spring digging around in my head. It causes flashbacks sometimes, and they're disorienting." Vincent reassured. "What were we talking about?"

"Charley's going to be roaming around here today. Try to avoid talking to him if you can, although you will probably want to watch. Jeremy's going to keep you company for most of today, not just for your defense either." Mike sighed. "If Charley comes up to you specifically, try and lead him to me, Percy, or Fritz. Do NOT talk to him any longer than you have to. I'm not saying you're bad at hiding things, but he has a habit of digging into people's secrets, and he's good at it."

"Got it, try to avoid talking to Charley." Vincent nodded.

"Glad we've got that out of the way." Mike checked his watch. "He'll be here momentarily…"

As if on cue, a tall young man with the 'surfer dude' look walked in the door. Vincent immediately recognized him as Charles. The guy had a mess of dirty blonde hair on his head, with startling blue eyes that seemed to see a lot more than most. With the stubble on his face, he looked fairly unkempt; and his old Freddy Fazbear's t-shirt didn't exactly help the look.

Mike immediately took notice of the somewhat unkempt man and approached him with a smile. "Hey Charley, how's it going?"

"Hey man! I see you got the old things revamped!" Charley greeted. "I loved the place way back when, even if it was a bit ratty and run down, now it's brand new!"

"I'm glad to see you like it." Mike replied with a chuckle. "I will admit that the old place was very, very bad, but we've brought everything up to code, and much, much better."

"So dude, any paranormal activity? Ghosts? Vengeful murderers?" This last caused Vincent to shudder, but thankfully he was far enough out of the way that Charley didn't notice.

The owner of the location sighed. "It always comes back to this, doesn't it?"

"Sorry man…" Charley rubbed the back of his head. "It's just been my life for the past, like, fifteen years. I do genuinely want the job, it's just my natural curiosity. I can't _not_ ask."

"I understand." Mike took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he had a resolute look in his eyes. "If I tell you, you have to swear that you won't tell anyone, and that we are allowed to use our… preventative measures."

"Preventative measures? Like… brainwashing?" Charley's eyes widened and he took a step back.

"Charley…" Mike smacked the palm of his hand into his forehead. "I'll explain in detail in a bit. For now, I need you to come with me to the Prize Corner. It's been surprisingly empty recently, and for our purposes that's a good thing."

"Okay man, I trust you." Charles nodded.

Gesturing for Charley to follow, Mike led the way to the Prize Corner. With a sudden jolt of worry, Vincent realized that Spring was still in the Prize Corner.

 _Incoming._ He warned.

 _I gotcha. Want me to send you a feed?_ Spring asked, not worried.

 _Sure._

It was like watching television out of the corner of your eye, difficult to pay attention to in your current position, but possible. The only real difference was that it was in Vincent's mind, as opposed to actually being a television.

"So what exactly do you wanna talk about?" Charley asked, an easygoing smile on his face. He seemed to have forgotten about the whole 'brainwashing' thing already, although it was more likely that he had been joking.

"Tell me what you think you know about Freddy Fazbear's Pizza." Mike replied.

"Umm… okay then? It's a franchise that began in the early 80s, with four animatronic characters and the two springlock suits. The characters are Freddy, Bonnie, Chica-"

"Charley, I know that you've researched the history of the place, but what do you know about the legends behind it." Mike cut him off.

"It started in 1978, at Fredbear's Family Diner. There was a drug trade there, and only one man was a direct witness, being Frederick Beyer, the owner of the diner. He was also witness to a murder, wherein a tall figure with dark hair slashed a child's face and throat. The culprit was never caught, but Fredbear's was shut down due to the tragedy. Two years later, the first Freddy Fazbear's Pizza was opened, and the original characters were reworked into the iconic quartet. They kept Fredbear and the original Bonnie as springlock suits, in order to pay homage to the diner; even if they changed the gender of Bonnie. In the early summer of 1983 more tragedy occurred, wherein five children were lured into the back room by an employee in one of the spring suits; the bodies were never found. Most don't think it was an employee, but all evidence shows that it was an employee, likely one of the higher-ups. A month later, the two employees that regularly wore the springlock suits died, due to a malfunction in the spring mechanisms. Four years later, a similar tragedy occurred. Five more children were lured into a back room and murdered. The bodies were also never located, however there were five child skeletons found under the building a year later. Around a week after the children went missing, one Jeremy Fitzgerald was bitten on the head by an animatronic dubbed 'The Mangle', damaging his brain irreparably and sending him into a coma. A while later, I can't find the exact date, Jeremy died due to the emergency equipment failing in a power outage. In 1990 the place was reopened, and while it was beloved, it was on a rapid decline. In 1993 Percy Giles was hospitalized after a heart attack brought on while manning the night shift. On November 21, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza shut down. Exactly one year later, Vincent Tollini, the head of security and number one suspect for the murders went missing. I forgot to bring it up earlier, but throughout all of this, starting after the first five children went missing, the animatronics roamed around the building, in 'free roam'. However, many ex-night guards believed that the animatronics were possessed or haunted, because they roamed into the night guard's office. Anyways, after Vincent Tollini went missing, thirteen years passed with Freddy Fazbear's being largely unmentioned. You had bought out the company, but there was no action. Thirteen years after you bought the company, I opened Fazbear's Fright, where you immediately applied for a job in order to, as you put it 'recover company relics'. About a month after we finished the building, we located an animatronic you labeled Springtrap. I realized that there was a body in it, but we weren't sure if it was real or not. Now for my hypothesis. Vincent Tollini, the man who went missing, was the body that was in the 'Springtrap' suit."

Vincent's jaw dropped, as did Mike's and Springs. Vincent quickly closed his mouth and went back to drawing. He didn't want to stand out too much.

"Well man? How on the dot am I?" Charley asked, his easygoing smile still in place, although his eyes said that he knew he had hit the nail more or less on the head.

Mike recovered quickly enough. "Actually, very closely."

"Whoa, what?" Charley seemed surprised that Mike had confirmed it.

"Eleven children total died. The animatronics roamed around at night, I saw that for myself. Percy Giles nearly died, but he's still around; in fact he's in this building right now, doing my paperwork for me. The timeline is accurate. Actually, every bit of that is entirely correct." Mike confirmed with a nod.

"Wait, so the whole ghosts thing too?" Charley asked in disbelief.

"Let me show you." Mike rapped his knuckles on the lid of the Puppet's box. "Okay Puppet. He knows."

A short peal of 'Pop Goes the Weasel' played, and the stick thin figure rose out of the box, its gaze evenly on Charley. "Is he trustworthy?"

"He will be once you cast your spell." Mike replied. "Charley, Puppet. Puppet, Charley. Charley, this is the Puppet, a haunted marionette from the original diner. It also happens to be the current vessel of the first child killed by the infamous killer that has been associated with the establishment."

"So you're a- and that means-" Charley sputtered. "Dude! This. Is. Awesome!"

"You can't tell anyone." The Puppet commanded sternly.

"But… this means everything I've done wasn't just me being a loonie!" Charley was ecstatic.

"Yes, but you literally cannot speak of this with anyone outside of this building." The Puppet asserted, waving its hand. "I've made certain of that."

"Okay, okay, fine." Charley raised his hands in a surrender gesture.

"So Charles, you taking the job?" Mike asked with a smile.

"Hell yeah, man!"

Just then, Jeremy chose the worst possible time to enter the Prize Corner. "Hey Mike, small problem with…"

"What is it Jeremy…" Mike's smile turned to an exasperated expression.

"This is Jeremy?" Charley asked, his grin growing even wider. "Like, Jeremy Fitzgerald?"

"I really screwed up, didn't I." It wasn't a question, more a statement of his own stupidity. Jeremy sighed. "He's in on it, right?"

Mike sighed. "Yes. He is. That doesn't change the fact that you just directly disobeyed what I told you."

"So, not only are the animatronic actually haunted, but you, like, brought Jeremy back from the grave?" Charley was practically shaking with excitement.

"Nah man, I'm dead; have been for more than twenty years." Jeremy replied, waving off Mike's irritated look. "Just having issues with my corporeality."

"So you're a ghost, that's basically a living person?" Charley laughed. "I _knew_ there was some weird stuff with this place!"

"Have you told him about magic yet?" Jeremy asked Mike.

"I was _going_ to." Mike facepalmed for the second time that day.

"Magic too? This just gets better and better man!" Charley laughed again. "What's next? Is Vincent Tollini going to walk in the door?"

"No. No he's not." Mike asserted, then mumbled quietly enough that only Spring could hear. "At least he'd better not." He spoke louder again. "However, there are two other ghosts that were killed by spring suits; they're currently resting. Not to mention that we've revamped Spring Bonnie, or Springtrap as it used to be called."

Both Vincent and Spring flinched at the name Springtrap, but Mike continued anyways, not noticing. "Not to mention that all of the other animatronics are haunted. Just don't call Vix by the name she had back in '87, avoid ticking off Bonnie and Freddy, do not mention the name Springtrap if you can avoid it, and in general avoid talking about 1987 around the toy animatronics."

"So what were you talking about with magic?" Charley sobered.

"Living humans are incapable of magic. Only the dead need concern themselves with it." The Puppet cut in before Mike could answer. "You had best hope you won't need to."

"Alright then." Mike conceded. "The Puppet's our magic master of sorts. If it says you don't need to know, you'd be best off doing as it says."

"So… I still get the job, right? I do actually need the money." Charley asked seriously, his easygoing mood gone.

"Well, you've uncovered just about every secret of this place." Mike replied. "I'd say you're practically already part of the family."

* * *

 **Meet Charley. He's not actually on drugs, although he has about a billion surprises up his sleeves. He's one of those people who you never really know everything about, mostly because he's a theorist, and a chill surfer dude, and a superstitious, clever, and un-serious guy.**


	87. Something Creepy in the Hallway

**_I'm worried Matt._**

 ** _I am too._**

 ** _He's met all but one of us, but that one…_**

 ** _Tony can step in and help, right?_**

 ** _I can't._**

 ** _Why. Not._**

 ** _Nightmare is enforcing its rules._**

 ** _Why now? Why not earlier in the week?_**

 ** _Because Nightmare has faith in the one who will be here tonight._**

 ** _Why? Why would it have faith in HIM?_**

 ** _Mister Tony… is Nightmare going to kill my new friend tonight?_**

 ** _I hope not kid. I really hope not._**

 ** _…I can get in._**

 ** _Paul, are you sure?_**

 ** _Of course I am. I can get into the room, but it will put the triplets in danger. You can understand why I'm reluctant._**

 ** _If you could help him, even for a few moments…_**

 ** _Vi, I'll do what I can. The triplets will need to use their magical talent, and while they're talented, they lack practice and skill._**

 ** _Can they send someone else in?_**

 ** _I…_**

There was a chorus of voices saying **_Yep!_**

 ** _Yes. Yes they can._**

 ** _Send Tony in._**

 ** _I'm not the strongest, believe it or not._**

 ** _Would that be ########?_**

 ** _No. Well, yes. He's the strongest because he hasn't been in this life draining environment as long as the rest of us. But Aaron still possesses far more spiritual energy than the rest of us._**

 ** _Wait. Me?_**

 ** _Yes, it surprised me too. Apart from Barry, you've been here the longest. As all of us know, Nightmare is slowly stealing our energy. But you seem to be largely immune to the effects._**

 ** _How?_**

 ** _Hell if I know._**

 ** _Real eloquent answer there mister words._**

 ** _Shut up Connor._**

 ** _Hey, here's an idea: send more than one of us through._**

 ** _Don't you remember what's going to happen tomorrow?_**

 ** _Oh. OOOOHHHH._**

 ** _Yeah. Just one tonight._**

 ** _Aaron then?_**

 ** _Aaron._**

 ** _Glad we've come to a decision right as Vincent gets here._**

Vincent pushed himself off of the bed. Now that he knew what to look for, seeing the phantasmal images of the Nightmares was a lot easier. Not to mention hearing them. Knowing that their extradimensional space was superimposed over his own, it was easy to understand how he could hear them.

 **Do you hear them plotting? Planning to bypass me? I'll let them, but it won't change anything.** Nightmare taunted.

"I hear my friends talking on how they can help." Vincent replied, grabbing his flashlight.

 **You think they care? That they want to help you because they're your FRIENDS?** The dark creature laughed. **They seek a chance to spite me. And like usual, they. Will. Fail.**

"You seem real adamant about that." Vincent commented.

 **And should I not be? I have existed since the dawn of humanity.** Nightmare asserted. **Never once has my power been overwhelmed by a mortal or once-mortal.**

"So what immortal entity has overwhelmed you?" Vincent asked, picking up on the hidden message that Nightmare didn't want him to hear.

 **I – you-** Nightmare sputtered. **How dare you insinuate that I was overwhelmed by another, lesser, being? HOW DARE YOU!**

"Ouch. Looks like I touched on a sore spot." Vincent said with a grin. "Someone has pride issues."

 **Do you want me to shred your 'friends'' souls?** The immortal creature seemed deadly calm now.

"Point taken." Vincent backed down. "What do you have in store for me tonight?"

 **Your death. But I think you'll see that soon enough.** Nightmare was cold now, instead of its usual fake jovial voice.

"Good luck with that." The human muttered.

 **Go have some fun with Barry.** Nightmare growled.

The room darkened to nothing, causing Vincent to flail in the void. For a few moments, he thought that the whole world had vanished, but his panic was eased when the hall with the chair materialized. As per usual, Barry was seated upon the chair, a slightly dejected look on his plastic face.

"Hey Barry, is there a problem?" Vincent asked, concerned.

 ** _Nightmare… it wants you dead tonight. It'll take matters into its own hands tomorrow if you don't lose tonight._** Barry answered.

"Even if Nightmare itself comes after me, I'm not going to lose." Vincent brushed it off confidently.

 ** _Still, what if you do lose? How will we play the game then?_** The childlike creature worried.

"I won't lose." Vincent stated simply.

 **Touching, but it does not progress the game. Begin.**

Immediately, Vincent's flashlight flickered off.

 ** _I don't want to do this anymore! I want to play, but not to make Vincent die!_**

 **Your wants do NOT matter. Kill him.**

 ** _But… but… the game isn't to kill him! It's to make him do the full six hours!_**

 **I. Do. Not. CARE!**

 ** _P-please! No!_**

 **Play your gods damned game then. He will be dead by the end of the night.**

Vincent turned his flashlight on and shined it at Barry. It was times like these that Vincent knew for certain that, while Barry was quite insane, he was still a child. The plastic creature had synthetic tears streaming down his face. With sadness in his heart, Vincent turned the flashlight off again. After a couple seconds, the heavy and slow _thump, thump_ of Barry's footsteps was audible, and it came to a complete stop directly in front of him.

The human turned his flashlight back on to show Barry already slumped over on the X.

 **You weren't trying.** Nightmare commented, sounding disgusted.

 ** _I-I was! I was trying!_** Barry protested

 **Likely story.** Nightmare snorted. **Fine. You win your little game. Enjoy your small victory, because while the battle is won, you've lost the war.**

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch." Vincent retorted. "After all, anything could happen."

 **I don't think so.** Nightmare's ephemeral form expanded to encompass the whole room. **The omnipotent can alter fate itself, after all…**

When Nightmare moved off, Vincent was back in the room with the bed.

And a particular, twinkling tune was playing throughout the room.

It made Vincent's blood run cold.

The human rand to the right door and shined his flashlight directly into the frozen visage of a terrifying creature. Its glowing white eyes narrowed to vertical slits, it lunged at him. As quickly as he could, Vincent slammed the door shut, catching its spiderlike claws against the doorframe and causing it to hiss in pain.

 ** _Send me in now._**

 ** _We can't!_**

 ** _Need time!_**

 ** _Start then._**

 ** _And we'll hope Vincent survives until then._**

"Real encouraging guys." Vincent muttered, holding the door shut on the creature's claws.

The creature on the other side of the door slammed into it, forcing it open just enough for the striped claws to slide out, letting the door close completely. Immediately, after, there was a _thunk_ and a black and white striped claw punched through the door directly next to Vincent's head, the fingers sweeping the air blindly.

With a cry of surprise, Vincent ducked away from the door out of range of the claws. Just a fraction of a second later, the claws dug into the wood where Vincent's head had been, and pulled. A large chunk of wood broke off of the door to reveal a white ceramic face, black tearstains below its slitted white eyes. Its mouth was locked open in a perpetual grimace, with needle teeth lining the top and bottom.

 ** _Hsss!_** It snarled, the mask vanishing behind the door.

Then the strangest part happened.

The door's fragments on the ground vanished, and the wood of the door began to regenerate. Dark, shadowy ooze seeped out of the splintered edges of the hole, filling the gap entirely. Then the slimy looking substance hardened, congealing into white painted wood, seamlessly healing the damaged door.

Vincent's jaw dropped. "The doors are literally alive. This place just gets weirder and weirder."

'My Grandfather's Clock' came to a sudden stop, then began again. Vincent quickly went over to the closet and opened it, revealing a mask lying on the floor. Vincent's vision flickered for a couple moments, and when it cleared, the mask was gone.

"This just gets creepier and weirder…" Vincent muttered, closing the closet again and turning to look at the bed.

It was right there.

A smiling mask with black tear stains was sitting on the bed, slowly rising. Already, a pair of striped claws were grabbing the covers of the bed and pulling down, as if it was pushing itself out of a pool. With panicked breaths, Vincent shined his flashlight directly on the puppet like creature, forcing it to sink back into the bed.

Then there was the sound of something pushing on the left door.

With a groan of anger and frustration, Vincent rushed over to the left door and shined his flashlight to check for the creepy marionette.

It wasn't there.

Smacking himself on the forehead, Vincent rushed over to the right door again and checked for the marionette.

It was right in his face again.

 ** _Boo._**

Vincent slammed the door shut again, but this time its whole arm was caught instead of just its spidery fingers. The spidery, skeletal limb flailed wildly, then stopped. It made its way to the doorknob and yanked as hard as it could. To Vincent's eternal gratitude, the door held; apparently the weight of a human child and the door was enough to stop a monstrous skeletal puppet.

With a scathing hiss, the clawed hand pushed on the door, again to no effect. Another hiss, and the claw changed targets, swiping directly towards Vincent. The claws stopped a fraction of an inch away from Vincent's face, and the human forced himself not to flinch.

 ** _He's going to die if we don't act now._**

 ** _Ready!_**

 ** _Send me in._**

There was the unmistakable ripple of magic, shortly followed by a brief scuffle.

 ** _I think I'll do it instead._**

 ** _Connor you absolute ####### MORON!_**

 ** _Wow, and you all call me a pottymouth._**

 ** _YOU LITTLE ####, YOU'LL KILL VINCENT._**

 ** _Relax, I got this._**

There was a strange sound that Vincent identified as portal transportation, and Connor appeared in the middle of the room.

 ** _Oh, sweet. It worked._**

 ** _CONNOR I'M GONNA ####### KILL YOU._**

Connor chuckled. **_Aaron's a little pissed right now._**

"Is that because he was supposed to be the one who helped me; what with the whole 'stronger than the rest of us' speech?" Vincent growled, sliding a little ways along the door to keep it closed while avoiding the creature's claw.

 ** _Well, yeah, that's true. But I wasn't just gonna go and sit there while he's playing hero. So I decided to take over._** Connor replied, brushing it off.

"So you, the useless, one handed fox with a habit of getting _impaled_ , decided to take over when Aaron could actually DO SOMETHING." Vincent was shouting by the end of the sentence.

 ** _-Oh._** Connor came to the sudden realization that he had screwed up. **_I just signed your death warrant, didn't I?_**

 ** _YOU THINK THAT WASN'T WHAT I TOLD YOU?!_**

 ** _I get it Aaron!_** Connor shouted into the air. **_I SCREWED UP!_**

Something body checked the door from the other side, causing Vincent to stumble forwards off of the door. The marionette creature hissed angrily, and its whole body was revealed. It looked like some sort of skeleton covered in tar, with a covered ribcage and pelvis section, the bones quite obviously visible. Six tendrils of strange, tar substance stemmed from its back, hanging limply at the current time. The striped pattern on its fingers was also on its spidery legs, although only on the lower third.

With a cackling hiss, the creature lunged at Vincent, claws outstretched and eyes slitted. Connor immediately reacted and ducked forwards, using the same speed he had in life to directly block the towering monster.

 ** _Alright Nightmarionne, let's send you back to Nightmare in a box._** The fox grunted, burying his hook in the thing's upper torso.

 ** _That's not my NAME!_** The creature screeched in his face, its arms coming around and stabbing into Connor's back.

Connor grunted again, this time in pain. **_Yeah, well. Nightmare's put a censor on your name, so I took the liberty of coming up with a nickname._**

The fox tore upwards with his hook, shredding the front of the puppet and causing the sound of cracking bone to be heard. Immediately the puppet screamed, forcibly causing Connor to recoil and cover his ears in pain. The puppet creature screamed again, causing Connor to fall to his knees.

'Nightmarionne', as Connor called it, wrapped its cruel claws under the edge of the ragged fox's head. **_I. Hate. Your. Nicknames._**

 ** _Yeah, well…_** Connor swallowed. **_Pissing people off is my specialty…_**

 ** _Hmm… I think you've succeeded._** The towering puppet snarled, pulling up. With a _pop_ Connor's head came off cleanly, and the marionette threw it to the ground.

 ** _Now it's your turn, you pathetic whelp!_** The slender monster growled, stalking towards Vincent. The hole in its rib portion was already knitting itself back together, much like the door had.

"Who are you?" Vincent asked, slowly backing away. "Who were you in life?"

 ** _Of COURSE you forgot. Of course you did. It's not like we were friends or anything._** The skeletal marionette continued to approach Vincent.

"Franklin…" Vincent said, his eyes widening in realization. "You're the thirteenth… the one who Nightmare went ballistic on that first night. The one that the others have been referring to as 'newbie'. How…?"

 ** _How am I here?_** Franklin spat the question, venom in his voice. **_Have you already forgotten that you're one of the marked? Hell, I was one of the marked too. But then, you wouldn't know that. Not unless you listened way back then when I told you about my nightmares. 'Ignore them' you said. 'It'll pass' you said. 'Focus on the mission' you said._**

"But I was also under Nightmare's influence! I didn't-" Vincent protested.

 ** _You didn't CARE. Nobody cared while I was slowly spiraling into INSANITY!_** Franklin shouted, his eyes changing from slits to swirls, then back again. **_So now, I'm going to return your apathy, your cruelty. Your HATE._**

"F-Franklin… please!" Vincent stumbled and fell onto his back, arms upraised. "I never- never wanted to hurt you! I-I wanted to help you, b-but I n-never knew-"

 ** _Knew about what?_** Franklin's clawed hand snapped forward and lifted Vincent by the front of his shirt.

"Nightmare! None of us kn-knew about Nightmare!" Vincent was panicking now, breathing far faster than was safe and tearing up in the eyes.

 ** _That doesn't excuse your insensitivity._** The towering puppet spat, his mask-face less than an inch away from Vincent's face.

"I know…" Vincent fell limp in Franklin's grasp. "I'm-" Vincent choked on a sob. "I'm sorry."

 ** _…_**

"I could have- could have fought off my apathy. I could have listened. I could have done so much different…" Vincent choked back another sob. "So… now I'm going to die for my- my sins. **"**

 ** _When Nightmare first gave me this body, I was ecstatic. I was stronger. Faster. More dangerous. Taller._** Franklin's voce was flat, emotionless. **_I was its choice for killing you. It knew already that the others would either fail or refuse to attack you._**

 ** _But you know what I feel about this? I feel angry and frustrated. Constantly. This body may be nearly indestructible and able to tear apart those doors, but it's uncoordinated. I can't use any of my, or rather, your fighting techniques like this. I can't just be normal again._**

Franklin's eyes widened from slits to orbs. **_I don't hate you. I want to hate you, I want to want revenge. But I can't. I can't blame you for anything you've done. I know it's all been Nightmare, and that you've helped me more than anyone else. Period. I would have died on those streets if you hadn't taken me in, and I repayed you by trying to sell you out._**

 ** _I hate myself more than anything. And I don't blame you if you don't forgive me. I'll go._** Franklin slowly lowered Vincent to the ground and began to walk off, picking Connor's head up off the ground. **_And you can stop pretending to be dead. ###hole._**

To Vincent's surprise, Connor's eyes opened. **_Damn. Thought I was being sneaky._**

 ** _I know your anatomy better than you do. Go put your head back on._** Franklin dropped Connor's head – to the fox saying **_ow_** – and left the room.

Connor's decapitated body climbed to its feet and began stumbling around the room. **_Right. Right. Left. Your other left!_** Connor instructed his body.

"You want…?" Vincent began.

 ** _I got this._** The body leaned over and grabbed the head. **_Ow. Not the hook! Not the-_** _Thunk._ **_Hook._**

The headless fox lifted its head on its right hand, waving it in the air. **_Welp. Got my head._** With a little bit of pain, Connor managed to get his head back on properly. **_There we go._**

 **What. Happened.**

Nightmare's ephemeral form coalesced in the room, its red eyes burning with anger as it glared at Connor and Vincent. Connor chuckled nervously. **_H-hey boss…_**

The dark monster's form twitched, and its eyes flashed. Connor found himself flying across the room into the wall, where a spike shot out of the plaster to impale him. **You directly disobeyed me. Directly.**

Vincent slowly backed away from the immortal creature.

 **As for you…** A shadowy arm coalesced in Nightmare's form and performed a gesture, causing Franklin to levitate into the room. The skeletal puppet passed through the wall as if it were nothing but air, but it was obvious that he did not want to be brought in.

 ** _Let me go!_** Franklin hissed, struggling.

 **Not likely. You betrayed me. I expected it of the others, but not of you.** Nightmare scolded.

 ** _Then let me kill him tomorrow night._** Franklin reasoned, trying and failing to sound confident and calm.

 **Appealing, but no.** Nightmare pinned Franklin to the wall and turned its gaze to Vincent. **You'd just let me down again.**

 ** _I won't master, please!_** The masked creature pleaded.

 **I admire your skill in lying, though not its target or intent.** Nightmare growled. **Now then. I do believe tonight's game is up. You won't survive tomorrow.**

"Threaten me all you want, I'm not giving up." Vincent retorted.

 **Oh, it's not a threat.** Nightmare laughed, before growing dark and cruel again. **It's a promise.**

 **Tomorrow is another day.**

* * *

 **And here we have the full roster of Nightmares! Franklin isn't too happy about being a giant creepy puppet, and he's even less happy that he's attacking the only person who actually ever helped him.**

 **Alternate title: Aaron's F###### Pissed.**


	88. Fears and Forewarnings

Have you ever felt like everything was going to fail? Like there was nothing you could do to prevent your day from slowly spiraling into failure? Like your plans are all collapsing, despite what the facts state?

That's how Vincent felt today.

He knew intellectually that Nightmare was overconfident and likely just trying to screw with his confidence, but he still felt like he wouldn't survive tonight.

It was distracting him so much that he couldn't focus on his drawing.

The feeling of dread that had settled over him was keeping him from drawing Franklin. He had already redrawn Barry as a friendlier creature, making him into a more normal child with orange eyes and a striped shirt. He had foregone the hat, drawing Barry with the dark hair that the child had had on the first day he had seen him.

Now he was working on Franklin. Unlike the others –save Barry- he was drawing Franklin as a human. A dark and slightly creepy human, but a human nonetheless. His face was pale, but Vincent had adamantly drawn it as close to how it had been in life as he could. He did draw the dark tearstains that Franklin's mask had, but as streaks of makeup instead. Vincent knew that Franklin would probably object a bit to that, but he didn't care. This version of Franklin was taller than the actual, with a black suit that had white stripes on the wrists and ankles.

But he wasn't drawing very quickly, because Nightmare's threat had planted a seed of worry in Vincent's mind. What if he did die tonight? What if the monster killed him?

Vincent deliberated for a moment, then got off of his chair and snuck into the staff lounge. Charley would begin working at Freddy Fazbear's in a couple days, but for now they were still too understaffed to run both the Toy Stage and the Main Stage simultaneously. This meant that Vincent could safely get into the staff lounge undetected.

Going into his room, Vincent took a piece of paper and a pencil and, in his nicest handwriting, began to write.

 _To my family,_

 _I've been hiding something from you for the past week. Something that I probably should have told you, but which would completely alter our relationship._

 _I am going to die._

 _If you are reading this, that means that you're rummaging through my room. I am probably already dead by the time you find this note, and there is nothing you can do at this point. I'm sorry Puppet, but my soul is out of anyone's reach._

 _Nightmare, the creature haunting my dreams in both my first life and in the past week, has claimed my soul._

 _I know now that Nightmare is the reason I killed all of you. It's an immortal creature, existing since the dawn of time. It captures and manipulates souls in order to make itself more powerful, selecting troubled souls in order to push them over the brink._

 _I'm not certain if all of you know, but my life hasn't been easy. My parents died when I was five, forcing me to grow up quickly. In the orphanage me and my brother were moved too, we were both bullied, and when the orphanage shut down because of these bullies, both of us wound up on the streets. I don't know when Nightmare's influence started, but in my first life it meant that I cared nothing for the lives of others._

 _I deeply apologize for everything I've done, but I thank you all for being accepting of me. This past week has brought many people I thought long gone back into my mind. Old acquaintances and enemies both._

 _I hope and pray that nobody ever reads this, but I know that it is inevitable._

 _You've shown me the kindness my life has been missing, thank you._

 _-Vincent._

He finished by signing his name and putting it into the drawer of the bedside table. Hopefully nobody ever read that. Vincent would probably burn it after tonight anyways, if he could. He had been especially careful to block Spring out, while being as surreptitious as possible to keep the rabbit from noticing.

Now that he had finished, however, Vincent allowed Spring back into his mind; making sure the rabbit didn't see the memory of the letter was still a priority, however. Immediately once Vincent lowered the mental barrier, Spring bombarded him with questions.

 _What happened? Why did you suddenly cut off?_ Spring asked, worried.

 _I'm fine, but I don't know why I cut off._ It made Vincent uncomfortable, having to lie to Spring. It would make things less hard on the rabbit if he didn't know.

That's when the enormity of the significance of his relationship with Spring hit him. Spring was a part of him, and while the rabbit would probably survive without him, how would he fare? Spring would be devastated.

But there was nothing he could do to ease the pain of his death. Nothing. The only thing he could do was simply not die. This realization filled Vincent with the determination to win. Regardless of how he had to do it.

 _Need you upstairs. I'm having a little difficulty staying hidden._ Spring alerted.

That was a welcome change of subject to think about. Spring, in his current state, was a character that was considered 'rare' and hard to find. Spring didn't do much to deter the rumors on this, as he was shy in his youthened state. Vincent had had to bail him out of close situations multiple times on the previous day, after Charley had left. It turned out that just standing in the near vicinity of Spring was enough to scare off most other kids. If he wasn't trying to do just that, then Vincent would probably have been dejected and/or offended.

As it was, it was slightly demotivating to know that he was considered creepy and weird to the kids. When he had been wearing the Spring suit, he wasn't the most popular, but he wasn't disliked either. It was probably the grey eyes and white hair more than anything else. Although it could also be the haunted look in those eyes or the way that he acted much older than he looked.

When he entered the Prize Corner, he could see why Spring was having difficulty hiding. There was a surprising amount of kids in the relatively small room, all of them chatting with each other, turning in tickets, or surreptitiously looking behind and under objects.

Spring had taken the guise of a stuffed rabbit on the shelves behind the Puppet box.

Vincent nearly laughed aloud at the sight of that. Spring pretending to be an oversized stuffed animal was a new trick, and one that nobody seemed to have caught on to yet.

 _If you're done laughing, could you please scare these people off?_ Spring asked, irritated.

 _Okay, okay. I'll go stand over by the Puppet box._ Vincent soothed, still laughing inside.

Walking over to the box, Vincent took note of how some of the other kids gave him wary glances. He didn't honestly blame them, although he did feel a bit demoralized because of it. With a heavy sigh, he sat down next to the Puppet's box and stared up at the 'memorabilia'.

It wasn't long before kids started to trickle out of the Prize Corner. In groups of one or two, children who were just looking for Spring left. Others who were chatting stayed a little longer before leaving, following the crowd. Any of the kids who were turning in tickets for prizes hurried up, before they too eventually left. In minutes, the room was empty save Vincent, the Puppet, and Spring.

The towering marionette looked down at Vincent. "Not that I don't appreciate your company, but I get the feeling that you deliberately scared the children off."

"Eeyup." Vincent replied, nodding.

"Why, exactly?" The Puppet tilted its head.

In response, Vincent pointed upwards at the rabbit on the shelf, who was looking down at the two with a cheeky grin.

"How did you get up there…?" The haunted puppet asked, craning its neck to stare up at Spring.

"Umm…" Spring blinked, his face scrunching up in thought. "I don't actually know. Please help."

With a sigh, the Puppet stood to its full height and reached up to the rabbit. It was easily able to lift him off of the shelf, then it lowered him gently to the ground. "Just try not to do it again. Please."

"I still have no idea how it happened, but I'll try." Spring assured, scratching the side of his head. "So how's Jeremy been doing?"

"I still haven't figured out how he can turn back, much less how he became corporeal in the first place." The Puppet replied with another sigh. "On the bright side, he'll be able to sustain his current condition for another week before he runs out of energy and reverts to incorporeality anyways. Although that is not a route we want to take, as it will also require him to go dormant for a while."

"So we're hoping that you can figure out a way to get him back into his incorporeal form without draining his energy reserves?" Vincent clarified.

The Puppet nodded. "Exactly. In addition, I've been working on the solution to Nightmare. It should be ready tomorrow."

"T-tomorrow?" Vincent asked, trying and failing to hide his worry.

"Why? Is there an issue?" The Puppet raised one of its eye ridges in concern.

"No, no. It's fine. Tomorrow." Vincent nodded

The tall creature gave him a look that said it didn't believe him, but shrugged as best it could anyways. "I'll see if I can get it done earlier, but no promises."

"Okay then." Vincent nodded again. "Umm, so what's happening today?"

"Nothing much, actually. Today's fairly empty." The Puppet replied, turning its attention to something in its box. It pulled a half-finished doll out of its box along with a needle and thread. It immediately began to work on the doll, its spiderlike fingers moving quickly.

"Well, I'll leave you to it then." Vincent waved goodbye.

"Have fun." The Puppet looked up from its work and smiled.

Vincent went into the main show area, Spring staying behind to hide from the mobs of children that sought him out.

The grey eyed child returned to his drawing table and began to draw. He didn't know what he was drawing until he drew close to completion, but on its own, it was enough to give him ordinary nightmares, let alone magically induced ones.

With the blood red eyes that obviously showed Nightmare, the monster he was drawing had massive teeth lining its mouth. Its head was hidden in streaming shadows, though in general shape it was human-like. Other than the eyes and teeth, the face was featureless; the mouth took up a full third of its head, however. The torso was similarly shrouded in shadow, but it was obviously broad-shouldered in form. The center of its upper torso had what looked like an exposed ribcage, with shadows sliding over metal bones. The arms had ragged coverings, midnight black in color. The only thing visible beneath the dark pseudo skin was wires and metal, but Vincent had the unsettling feeling that there was more. The hands were massive, though not enough so to make it seem comical. The fingers had ragged skin on them, with bone-like claws that were on their own as long as the hand. The legs of the monster were sturdy, with the thighs and lower legs being bulky enough to show heavy muscle. The feet were wide enough to hold the monstrously unbalanced creature upright, with similar claws to the hands on the 'toes'.

The scariest part was that the picture was moving.

The red eyes stared up at him, the mouth curled into a cruel snarl. **How do you like my preferred form? This is what will be killing you tonight.**

"No. No, I won't let you." Vincent began tearing the page up, fear in his eyes.

 **We'll see.** Nightmare laughed. **We will see.**

Nightmare faded out, leaving cruel laughter ringing in Vincent's ears.

* * *

 **Having a storm of inspiration to write. Next chapter should be out either tomorrow or the day after.**

 **Nightmare can take the form it has in the games, but my version of it prefers the one described above.**

 **We're nearing the endgame people.**


	89. Nightmare Part 1

When Vincent entered the dream realm that night, he was greeted by music. It confused him, until he realized just who was singing.

 **Don't mind the noise, outside the door…**

 **It's just a phantom, nothing more.**

 **No need to give yourself a scare,**

 **When you glance and no one's there…**

 **I don't wanna have to hurt you…**

Nightmare broke off with a malicious laugh. **Oh, my mistake. I lied a bit there. Hurting you is something I'd love to do. But where was I… oh yes.**

 **It's not your fault, I felt his rage.**

 **Just a child, about your age!**

 **But something drives me to this place,**

 **I can see him, in your face.**

 **You'll never know, the hell I've seen.**

 **Hmm… not quite accurate, but part of my favorite song, nonetheless.** Nightmare cut its own song off, chuckling.

 **Don't fear what's coming,**

 **We can't fight off the urge inside**

 **It's dark and you're afraid of**

 **The devils that come out at night.**

 **Let's make this easy**

 **Soon you'll haunt these beasts you hated.**

 **No need for sleep tonight,**

 **Sweet dreams are overrated.**

 **I'm just a whisper in the void.**

 **No one's there, you're paranoid.**

 **I'm just a trick of your own mind,**

 **Blink your eyes once and you'll find.**

 **I'm just a ghost, inside your head.**

 **Don't fear your fate that soon arrives.**

 **It's a deadly lullaby.**

 **You'll be with us, very soon.**

 **Another spirit, in the room.**

 **Take your place among the lost.**

Nightmare laughed before launching into the next part of the song.

 **Don't fear what's coming,**

 **We can't fight off the urge inside**

 **It's dark and you're afraid of**

 **The devils that come out at night.**

 **Let's make this easy**

 **Soon you'll haunt these beasts you hated.**

 **No need for sleep tonight,**

 **Sweet dreams are overrated.**

 **You can't wake.**

 **From this dream.**

 **No one will hear you screaming.**

 **So hold on,**

 **For the ride.**

 **I'll take you with me tonight.**

 **This nightmare,**

 **This prison.**

 **Inside the suits we live in.**

 **Don't fear me,**

 **Together.**

 **We'll have sweet dreams forever.**

Nightmare's dark shadowy form coalesced in front of Vincent, its nebulous shape slowly forming into the monstrous demon he had drawn during the day. It reached out to Vincent, a cruel smile on its face.

 **Don't fear what's coming,**

 **We can't fight off the urge inside**

 **It's dark and you're afraid of**

 **The devils that come out at night.**

 **Let's make this easy**

 **Soon you'll haunt these beasts you hated.**

 **No need for sleep tonight,**

 **Sweet dreams are overrated…**

The demonic entity laughed once more, throwing its head back. **Oh, how I love this song. I know not its origin, but it so clearly portrays the darkness of the night. The nature of nightmares, and my own power and nature. There may be some errors, but who cares.**

"You can summon a ghostly orchestra." Vincent commented in disbelief, as if this were the most important part.

 **Not my most powerful ability, but for a true artist it is useful.** Nightmare shrugged, his cruel gaze resting on Vincent's face.

"Really? It seems to be the most useful thing you can do." The human retorted.

 **You're doomed regardless.** Nightmare replied, examining its nearly six inch claws. **You know how your friends cheated last night?**

"What about it? You can't penalize me for that." Vincent protested.

 **Oh, but I can. I make the rules.** Nightmare laughed cruelly. **Your punishment will be minimal, however. I do like a challenge. Barry's game is unavailable tonight.**

"So I have the full six hours again." Vincent stated more than asked. Then something Barry had said popped into his head. "But you never intended to let me play the game anyways, did you?"

 **So clever.** Nightmare chuckled. **Very, very clever. Yes, you are correct. You were going to deal with me for six hours tonight regardless. What a shame.**

"So your rules aren't even vague guidelines that you follow." Vincent continued angrily. "You just do as you like and give your victims false hope."

 **Tch, is the child mad, now that he's finally caught on?** The immortal taunted. **It's all been a game! The instant you agreed I could have simply killed you. You never stood a chance!**

 ** _Quicker!_**

 ** _Almost!_**

Nightmare raised one finger to stop Vincent before he could open his mouth and respond. **And… now.**

The grandfather clock in the halls of the dream realm chimed, marking midnight.

"So. What now?" Vincent asked warily.

 **Now, you die.** Nightmare drew back its clawed hand and launched it forwards.

Only to recoil as Vincent shined the flashlight in its eyes.

 **GAH! GODS DAMMIT!** The demonic creature screamed, covering its sensitive eyes with its other hand. **Of course. OF GODDAMN COURSE. THE FLASHLIGHT.**

There was a _crunch_ , and Vincent looked down to see the flashlight in his hands was nothing more than a mess of destroyed plastic. Shadows began streaming out of the mangled device, running down the plastic to the floor below.

Then the plastic melted.

Vincent cried out in panic and shook the dark ooze that the plastic turned into off of his hand. "What the hell?!"

 **Children shouldn't know such words.** Nightmare scolded, swiping towards the human with its claw.

Vincent closed his eyes against the pain of Nightmare's claws, expecting it to be comparable to the intense agony of being closed in the Springtrap suit.

A strange, unique noise was audible. Then there was the considerably less strange, less unique sound of someone being punched.

 **GODS ####### DAMMIT.** Nightmare swore, its own censor blocking its swear.

That's when Vincent placed the strange sound.

It was the sound of portal transportation.

 ** _Not today Nightmare. Not on my watch._** Aaron spat, launching his other hand into Nightmare's torso, knocking it away from Vincent.

 **How DARE you?** Nightmare growled, holding its stomach area. There was a gaping hole right there, but the shadows flowing into it made the regenerative process obvious. **I might as well rip your heart out for that.**

 ** _Gotta get to me first._** Aaron taunted, raising his hands in a defensive stance.

 **I have more fighting experience than you could ever learn.** Nightmare hissed. **What makes you think you can win?**

 ** _I can't. But I'll still try._** Aaron admitted, launching a punch.

Nightmare dodged with extreme ease, then reached up under Aaron's guard and plunged its hand into Aaron's torso segment. **As I said.** It pulled, ripping out a large portion of Aaron's suit along with a huge chunk of metal. **I'll rip your heart out.**

Aaron stumbled back, holding his hand close to his obliterated torso. There was a strange shadowy ooze leaking from the ragged edges of his suit. **_Huh, thought it'd hurt more than that._**

 **Let's see how much this hurts.** Nightmare pointed a single digit towards Aaron and its eyes flashed, firing a blast of energy at the rabbit. Aaron screamed in agony, falling to his knees. **Hmmph. Worth the cost.**

 ** _Stop bullying them!_** A childish voice screeched, accompanied by the portal sound.

A small figure latched onto Nightmare's head, screeching and shouting in its high pitched voice. Vincent recognized the little creature as Barry, the plastic abomination's massive jaw clamping down on Nightmare's newly solid form repeatedly.

 **Get OFF me!** The shadow creature reached up and grabbed the child before flinging him into the wall.

With a cry of rage, Aaron lurched to his feet and charged Nightmare, only to be hit by another blast of energy. The rabbit was thrown into the wall, his tattered form covering Barry. Another shot, then another hammered into Aaron's fallen body, each causing him to jolt up from the ground before falling back down heavily.

 **Stubborn fool.** Nightmare commented, wagging its finger in a disapproving gesture. It walked over to Aaron's downed form and picked the rabbit up, glaring at the child beneath. **As for you, traitor…**

 ** _Leave Vincent alone!_** Barry shouted, launching his smaller body at the towering monster.

Nightmare quickly cast the plastic creature back to the ground, snarling angrily. **I do as I please, brat. And right now, it pleases me to obliterate you.**

Nightmare drew back its other hand to plunge its claws into the plastic creature in its grasp, only to be halted by the sound of someone passing through a portal and another clawed hand grasping its wrist. **_You leave them alone._**

There were two more portal sounds, and Violet and Connor joined Paul in his entrance.

 **Heh. A challenge it is then. You'll never succeed.** The demonic entity hissed, its attention successfully drawn away from Vincent.

 ** _Never know until you try._** Connor retorted, readying his hook.

 **Fine then.** Nightmare ripped its wrist out of Paul's grip and slammed its other hand into Paul's shoulder simultaneously. The effect of the two opposing forces caused Paul's right arm to pop straight out of his shoulder. The dark creature followed up by ducking under Paul's reactive punch and ripping the bear's leg out of its socket. Another quick movement and Nightmare ripped Paul's other leg out of its socket.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye, and only after did Paul hit the floor. The orange eyed bear snarled and swung his remaining arm, which Nightmare caught and pulled off, leaving Paul limbless. **Not even a challenge.**

As if karma was directly influencing it, a claw scythed into Nightmare's skull, pulling up. Nightmare's head disconnected from its body cleanly.

 ** _You're going to pay for hurting Paul._** Violet promised, bringing her other hand around to try and crush Nightmare's head.

The monster's clawed hands both stabbed straight into Violet's gut, ripping outwards and badly damaging her torso section. Then both hands launched towards Violet's face, more specifically the eyes. Violet screeched and dropped Nightmare's head, covering both her eyes and stumbling backwards into the closet, before collapsing to the ground incapacitated.

Nightmare's decapitated body then swung around and reached down to grab its head, only to be prevented by said cranium being swiped from just beneath its grasp. Connor blitzed by in a red blur, the dark monster's head caught on his hook. **_Neener neener._**

 **I will kill you for this.** Nightmare promised, its body vanishing. Connor blinked and looked back at where it was, only to run headlong into the towering monster and stop in his tracks. **Peeka-boo. I see you.**

It seemed that Nightmare could operate at perfect performance regardless of the position of its head, meaning that it wasn't hindered at all by lacking its cranium. The demonic entity put its hand out and gestured for Connor to return its head. In response Connor tucked the head under his arm and ran, shouting **_I'm so dead for this!_** as he went.

 **Self-fulfilling prophecy.** Nightmare commented, its body teleporting again into the perfect condition to swing both of its clawed hands down onto Connor's face. The fox screamed in agony when the razor sharp claws shredded his skin and exposed the endoskeleton beneath, absolutely destroying his visage.

 **Hmm… now your outer appearance matches your true personality. Absolutely bare bone ugly.** Nightmare commented with a chuckle. It reached down and picked up its head and put it back on. The neck healed back to the severed head with a twining of dark fibers. After a couple moments, the head was attached seamlessly. **Now then, who's-**

The demon was interrupted by a figure swinging down from the ceiling and slashing at its torso segment. Black ooze sprayed out from the tears in Nightmare's body, and the spidery creature that had attacked it swung back up to the ceiling, its luminous white eyes visible in the darkness. Before Nightmare could retaliate, three more spirits came through the portal, and Azure, Matt, and Tali appeared in the room.

 **Trying to overwhelm me with numbers? Not a viable strategy.** Nightmare commented with a cruel laugh. **Do you honestly think you can kill me?**

 ** _We can try._** Franklin replied from the ceiling. The puppet dropped straight on top of Nightmare and began tearing at the monster's eyes with his clawed hands. Nightmare hissed in annoyance and plunged its claws into Franklin's skull, pinning the marionette to the wall. Franklin kept fighting, however, swinging his spiderlike nails at the dark monstrosity that was trying to kill him.

 **You're so pathetic.** Nightmare chuckled. **I could just keep you here until the day the world ended. You do realize that, right?**

 ** _I could just tear my head off your claws and regenerate. You do realize that, right?_** Franklin spat back.

Vincent suddenly realized that he had been standing there and doing nothing the whole time. He took this opportunity to duck into the closet where Violet was slowly recovering. "Vi? You alright?"

 ** _I'm recovering…_** The chicken replied with a groan. **_But I can't see…_**

"Move your hands." Vincent commanded. Violet was still holding her hands over her eyes, despite the fact that she couldn't bleed to death and any damage was already done.

After a moment's hesitation, Violet removed her hands from her eyes. Her left eye was fine, even though it was flooded with the black ooze that the Nightmares had for blood. The right eye, however…

She was half blind.

"Um… your right eye. It's all grey…" Vincent didn't know how to phrase it without causing her unnecessary panic.

 ** _I can't see out of either eye._** Violet said fearfully. **_Am I…?_**

"Probably not entirely. Hopefully not at all." Vincent answered, knowing the question she was asking.

The creature sighed. **_I already knew we would be paying for this heavily. Partial or whole blindness isn't too bad a price to pay for helping you survive._**

 **GET OFF OF ME!** Nightmare roared outside the closet. There was a hiss of pain that sounded like Franklin, and something slammed into the closet door. Vincent slowly peeked around the sliding door of the closet to take a look at the battle.

Franklin wasn't doing too badly, especially since he could regenerate, and the others had been moving into position the whole time he had been in the closet.

Tali lunged at Nightmare, their claws outstretched and jaw gaping wide to take a chomp out of the monster's skull. Nightmare whirled around and caught them under the chin, ripping upwards and pulling their spine out of their body. Then, with rapid, savage movements, Nightmare tore Tali apart. The white fox's skin was basically removed from their body entirely, leaving a mangled metal skeleton. The vicious creature ripped Tali's endoskeletal head out of her mask, splitting the spine in two and leaving the skull and the mask with one eye each.

The worst part was that Tali was still conscious the whole time. The now obliterated fox screamed in pain and collapsed in a pile on the floor.

Azure stepped in at this point, not being fast enough to have stopped Nightmare's brutal assault. The feathered creature dropped from the ceiling, suspended only by her claws. With swift kicks, she managed to cave in Nightmare's face and create a large hole in the side of the dark entity's head. **_Take that, you red eyed freak!_**

 **Would you like to be the kettle, or the pot?** Nightmare asked innocently, its head already regenerating.

 ** _Umm…_**

 **Oh for crying out loud…** Nightmare sighed, swinging its claws at Azure's long legs. The monster shredded through both synthetic skin and metal, damaging Azure's legs even worse than it had Tali. Azure cried out in pain and dropped to the ground, her grip ruined. Nightmare didn't even stop attacking her, still taking its wrath out on her lower body. This wasn't the same kind of damage as with Paul's limbs, as that was simply popping the limb out of the socket. This was downright obliterating Azure's legs and lower torso.

 ** _Leave her alone!_** Matt roared, swinging four punches at Nightmare simultaneously. The bright blue rabbit opened his mouth wide and bit into Nightmare's shoulder with his needle teeth, all the while jabbing Nightmare at various pressure points.

 **I don't have a nervous system.** Nightmare commented, slightly irritated.

In response, Matt unclenched his hands and jabbed with the fingertips. Vincent would have thought this stupid, but the black ooze flying out of Nightmare's injuries every time the rabbit struck told him otherwise. It was quick, but as Matt was recoiling to strike again Vincent caught a glimpse of claw sliding into his fingertip. Matt literally had switchblade fingers.

 **Get off me.** Nightmare sounded more irritated by the repeated injuries than angry, and it levered Matt's teeth out of its shoulder. Pushing the rabbit back, Nightmare used its other hand to slice downwards at Matt's torso, creating a thin line down the center. It was far from superficial, however, as the left side of Matt's torso began to swing outwards and expose his inner mechanisms.

Matt hissed in pain and reached across his body with his lower left hand to hold himself together. **_It'll take more than that._**

 **Really? How about this then?** Nightmare's arm blurred, and a similar thin line appeared down the center of Matt's face.

With another hiss of pain, Matt reached up and held his face together too. He still had free hands, however, and he used them to keep fighting.

 **Tch, aren't you persistent…** The demonic entity simply raised its index finger and fired a burst of energy bolts into Matt's chest, hammering him backwards. The last energy bolt exploded, leaving the rabbit unconscious.

 ** _Now!_**

Tony appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Nightmare in his massive hands. The dark monster struggled, but was unable to break free. Franklin sprung up from his position on the ground and flung himself at Nightmare, flailing at the dark creature with his vicious claws. Nightmare actually roared in pain for the first time in the entire fight.

 **You've –hrmph!- forgotten who you're fighting!** Nightmare's body suddenly diffused into its normal cloud form. Tony's grip was dissolved entirely, and Franklin's rapid attacks just swung through the air.

The cloud spread across the two rebellious spirits and Nightmare began a tirade. **You think you're so clever, since you both have more power over the dream realm than the others. You're not. You're just stupid for thinking that you could overpower me. You and your stupid mortal friends. None of you ever stood a chance.**

When the darkness collected again and coalesced into Nightmare's humanoid form, both of the spirits were incapacitated. Franklin's spidery limbs were bound up in a knot and his body was covered in gashes, and Tony was ripped cleanly in two.

 **Now then, I do believe I** ** _win_** **.** The immortal boasted, scanning the room. **Now, where did the human go…?**

Vincent held his breath and hid behind the door. There was the _thud, thud_ of footsteps, and the closet door was thrown wide open. **Vincent, Vincent, Vincent…**

Nightmare reached down and picked the human up by the back of his shirt, shaking its head all the while.

 **I do believe there's a saying for this…** Nightmare tapped on its chin in thought, then raised its index finger as if in realization. **Ah! You lose.**

"Nightmare…" Vincent murmured, his eyes on the alarm clock that was sitting on the bedside table.

 **Hmm? Any last words?** The creature queried cockily.

"Just one and a couple letters." Vincent gestured for Nightmare to lean in, which the creature did. "Six A.M."

 _Beep Beep Beep Beep…_

Nightmare's visage contorted into one of pure rage. **NO! NO! I REFUSE TO FAIL AGAINST A PETTY HUMAN.** The monstrous creature raised its hand into the air and began to murmur to itself. **One minute should be enough.**

The whole world _twisted_.

"Wh-what just happened?" Vincent asked fearfully.

 **What happened? What happened was that I don't care about your rules, nor the universal laws, nor the 'time traveler's pledge'. I turned back time by one minute.** Nightmare burst into hideous laughter, its whole body shaking as it howled its mirth. **In other words-**

A sharp pain entered Vincent's gut, and he looked down to see that Nightmare had jabbed its claws through him.

 **Game. Over.**

* * *

 **We've entered the endgame.**

 **I didn't expect to write this so quickly. But when you're inspired, you're inspired.**

 **Nightmare is singing 'Sweet Dreams' by Aviators. It's where I got part of the inspiration for my version of Nightmare.**


	90. Nightmare Part 2

The human in the bed stirred and slammed his hand down on the alarm clock on the bedside table. He sat up and rubbed his eyes before opening them.

His eyes were blood red.

 **"Hmm… seems Vincent forgot about this part."** Nightmare muttered, looking down at its new body.

With a heavy sigh, the demonic entity cast a spell; conjuring an orb of energy that shrank down into nothing. There were a couple seconds where nothing happened, then suddenly the pale human vanished, replaced by an adult version of himself.

 **"Simple enough spell to break. Cast by a pair of fools who have no idea what they're doing."** The now-human immortal mused, shaking his head. **"I should stop talking to myself."**

With its red gaze, Nightmare looked down at its new body. **"I suppose for the time being I should refer to myself as male, though I don't particularly like it. This body is much better than some I have claimed in the past. Faster. Stronger. More magically talented. Regardless of the fact that his magic is crippled, I should be able to use his instead of mine…**

 **"Not to mention the repertoire of tools Tollini has built up. His unique magic should come in handy for obliterating his little friends."** Nightmare stretched his hands. **"Although being mortal does have its downsides, I believe that I can lessen those…"**

Another orb of energy appeared in Nightmare's hands, this one being absorbed directly into the human body. Lines of energy glowed all over Nightmare's skin, before fading out and vanishing entirely.

 **"Subtle, not like mine…"** Nightmare commented on the spell, examining his newly empowered hands. There was no visible difference, although he was much stronger and faster than any living being had a right to be. **"Ordinarily, I would've gone with claws, although I suppose this does help more. Increased combat capability and increased dexterity, instead of sacrificing the latter for the former."**

 _Vincent?_

Nightmare jumped, scanning the room for where that voice could have come from. It didn't occur to the immortal that the voice had been inside his head instead of verbal. **"Who's there?"**

There was no other entities in the room. Just that oversized stuffed rabbit that Vincent had taken to sharing his bed with. Nightmare could care less about what Vincent did to make himself feel better, but there was something… off about the yellow rabbit. It seemed slightly more alive than an ordinary stuffed animal. Nightmare shook the feeling off, turning his attention back to the matter at hand.

 **"Hmm… let's dig around in Vincent's head. See what else he has that I can utilize…"** Nightmare may not have included Vincent's mind in the deal, but that was irrelevant. Nightmare could muscle its way into Vincent's mind and see the human's memories and thoughts, regardless of ownership. **"Unique magic, to be certain. Energy drain isn't something I've seen often. Especially not alongside illusion and control over shadows. It's almost as if Vincent's magic was tailor-made for me.**

 **But of course, that's probably coincidence. Shade manipulation, ooh. That could come in handy. Wait, wait, wait. He can fully negate a spell without expending his own energy? Well, regaining more energy than he spends. That's incredible…."** Nightmare whistled in admiration. **"Okay, what about external resources? Magic immunity amulet… might as well use that. Just to be on the safe side. Multiple knives, all within special sheathes that can trick a metal detector. Shotgun the size of a pistol. That one's probably the least useful, seeing as he only has the one clip. There's a whole section of his mind devoted to combat techniques, although those would be largely useless against mechanical foes… what's this? A section that's cordoned off? Can't quite break in… no matter. I have enough."**

The human body with an immortal puppeteer walked over to the bedside table and opened it. **"Oh, how cute. A death letter. Too bad they'll never get to read it. Here's the magic immunity amulet."** Nightmare grabbed the woven ring that was currently suspended on his neck and tore it off. **"Don't need that useless thing any more. Fear immunity is useless for one with nothing to fear."** He threw the fear immunity amulet to the ground and put the magic resistance amulet on. With deft fingers, Nightmare grabbed the pistol/shotgun and loaded it, putting all four shots into the chamber and turning the safety off. He stuck it in his pocket. Grabbing the knives, he put one on his back under his shirt, one on his outer right thigh, a third inside his left calf, and the last one on his side under the shirt.

 **"Let's get this show on the road."** Nightmare muttered, walking over to the door and opening it. Scanning the hallway for any of the humans or animatronics, he slowly made his way upstairs to the staff lounge. Still, nobody was there. It was as if the place was deserted. Stealthily walking through the building, Nightmare made his way to the kitchen. At least one of the animatronics would be there, the larger chicken, if he remembered correctly. Surprisingly, the bear and the rabbit were missing from the stage, but that was fine. He didn't want to deal with them yet.

Slowly entering the kitchen, Nightmare spotted the bright yellow chicken immediately. She was dicing herbs, probably for the pizza sauce later. To his shock, she looked up from her work with a smile. "Hi Vincent! Oh! You're back to normal! Did the Puppet break the spell?"

Nightmare just slowly walked towards her, hands empty at his sides.

"Vincent?" Chica asked, slowly backing away, knife still in her hands. "Wh-what's going on?"

The immortal drew back its fist and slammed it straight into Chica's shoulder, causing a loud _CRACK!_ And the screaming of tortured metal to be audible. Chica cried out in pain and surprise, still holding on to the knife in her other hand. "V-Vincent…? Wh-why?"

 **"Are you really that blind?"** Nightmare asked rhetorically, reaching forward and twisting Chica's right arm until the metal snapped. **"Vincent isn't in control, dearie. You can call me Nightmare."**

Chica stuttered something incomprehensible and Nightmare sighed. **"Would've expected more of a fight, but a flawless victory is still worth something."**

Nightmare reached out and placed his hands on the sides of Chica's head. **"This'll hurt. A lot."**

With his arms straining only slightly from the effort, Nightmare squeezed Chica's head, obliterating her mechanisms. The voicebox let out a final tortured scream as the animatronic fell to the ground. A light gasp of air moved, then the room was still.

Looking down at his hands, Nightmare grinned. **"This will be too easy."**

He left the room, a sinister smile on his face.

Behind him, a small silhouette rose from the wreckage of the animatronic he had destroyed.

* * *

Vincent opened his eyes. It was dark. Very dark. He couldn't see at all. With a grunt of effort, he propped himself up on his elbows and looked down at himself.

There was a gaping hole in his chest.

Yet, strangely, it didn't hurt.

His nerves were dead again. He was back in his adult body. Something had happened, and he was no longer locked in the body of a five year old.

But he still had a gaping hole in his chest.

Groaning in realization, Vincent fell back to the ground, his hand over his eyes. He had screwed up and lost, hadn't he? His soul was now in purgatory. Not only that, but Nightmare had his physical body…

Cursing loudly, Vincent staggered to his feet. He had forgotten about that part. How the hell had he forgotten? That letter yesterday was literally pointless, as Nightmare would be in his place. Would the demonic entity just pretend to be him? Or would it go on a murderous rampage with its new corporeal form? Worst yet, there was the possibility that Nightmare would attack the animatronics…

Shaking his head to ward off thoughts like that, Vincent looked around. It was still pitch black, but his eyes were rapidly adjusting. He was in the room with the bed, in Nightmare's dream realm. The room was completely empty save him, along with a ton of black ooze spattered all over the walls and floor. It looked like a war had gone on in this room, and the casualties had been moved.

To be fair, that was exactly what happened.

The question was, where had the bodies been moved to?

Vincent scanned the room. Still nothing there, but maybe they were in a different 'there'?

Concentrating, Vincent tapped into his energy reserves. They were depleted by a fair degree, but this shouldn't take much. After all, non-magic users could do it, and he had a larger reserve of energy than, say, Tony or Franklin.

There was a _twist…_

And a _yank…_

Then finally a _snap._

And Vincent was in the alternate version of the room.

All of the Nightmares were scattered around the room, in varying degrees of pain.

To be honest, it was depressing.

The one in best condition was probably Franklin. While he was covered in scars and gashes, he was regenerating, and he still had all of his body parts attached. Someone had unknotted him, and now he was sitting on the ground leaning against the wall, his eyes round and sad.

Tony was also in an okay condition. Being torn in two was surprisingly little to a creature that could reattach body parts at will. Similarly, Paul wasn't too crippled. The triplets were still trying to get his right and left leg the correct way around, but his limbs were reattached.

Vi, despite having one of her eyes badly damaged, was tending to Aaron. The rabbit was still unconscious, having taken a veritable barrage of energy blasts, not to mention literally having had his heart ripped from his chest. Vi's torso was torn, but the dark ooze that the Nightmares had for blood had stopped leaking from the wound. Aaron, on the other hand, still had a trickle of 'blood' draining from the hole in his chest.

Barry was with Tali, trying to reattach some of the damaged parts. The plastic child was lucky to not be badly injured. Aaron had shielded him from a very heavy amount of damage, in the process hurting himself. Tali didn't seem to be conscious yet, but their body was in one piece, even if that piece was strung out unnaturally.

Azure's entire lower body was nothing but a mess of metal and synthetic skin. The only parts of her that weren't damaged beyond recognition were from her midriff up. Her arms were still intact, as was her head, but her lower torso and legs were likely entirely unusable. Matt was cradling her body in two of his arms, the two halves of his face moving independently, desynchronized. His other two arms were holding his torso together, a light trickle of black ooze slowly running down the line that marked his dissection.

As Vincent entered the room, several ragged heads lifted and multiple pairs of glowing eyes, as well as a single red one, turned towards him.

At the sight of all of these people in pain, monsters though they were, Vincent fell to his knees. They were injured because of him. Because they fought for him. Because he had made the mistake of making a literal deal with the devil.

 ** _"Guys I…"_** He began, then stopped, startled at the strange echoing quality to his voice and not sure what else to say.

 ** _Before you say anything else…_** Connor wheezed from across the room, his face still a torn up mess. **_We don't care._**

 ** _"But…"_**

 ** _Connor's right. Even if he is an idiot most of the time._** Vi interrupted. **_We needed to fight Nightmare at some point. It's not your fault we lost._**

Vincent opened his mouth to speak again, only to be cut off by Tony. **_Vince, listen. We don't want an apology. If anything, we should be apologizing to you. Together, we should have been able to take Nightmare. After all, it draws from our energies in order to empower itself. But we screwed up. Instead of mobbing it, we tried to wear the damn thing out. Should've known that nothing less than a nuke would take out Nightmare. We've all taken injuries that would kill a mortal, but we're not mortal anymore. We'll all survive. The thing is, you won't. You will not survive unless you take action immediately. Nightmare plans to take out all, and I do mean all, of your family purely out of spite. It will gain power in the process, but its primary motivation is to spite you. What Connor has been trying to tell you the whole time was that Nightmare doesn't have control over your mind. Regardless of what it may believe, you have more power in your mind than Nightmare does. It works in perceptions and illusions, making you think that you're weak. And in many cases, it's correct. When you realize that it's all a ploy, the situation can reverse. It's already too late for you to fight Nightmare one on one, but you can look out through your own eyes and manipulate your memories in an attempt to mess with Nightmare._**

 ** _"So… there's still a chance?"_** Vincent asked, hope growing.

 ** _There's a chance. Not much more._** Was Tony's answer.

 _Vincent? You there?_

 ** _"Spring!"_**

 _Vincent, thank goodness. I was so worried you were… gone. Nightmare's in your body, and it's attacking the others._

 ** _"Don't let it get to Mike, Percy, or Fritz."_**

 _I'll do my best. Is there anything else I can do?_

Vincent pondered for a moment, then began to slowly grin. **_"Actually, yes. What sort of memory manipulation can you do…"_**

* * *

Freddy had finally cornered the monstrous creature in Vincent's body. He and Bonnie had been stalking the monster that called itself Nightmare. The strange part was that despite the fact that he knew, _knew_ , that Nightmare hadn't seen him, there was the unshakable feeling that Nightmare was playing a game with them. It had lured them into the arcade, and was now leisurely walking between the arcade machines. It came to a sudden stop and called out.

 **"Alright Freddy, Bonnie. Come on out."** Nightmare laughed. **"After all, you were kind enough to let me pick the battlefield."**

Cursing to himself, Freddy stepped out from behind the arcade machine, coming into Nightmare's view for the first time. "What are you, and why are you doing this?"

 **"Explaining what I am is somewhat complicated. You are a deceased soul, correct? I am a soul that was born out of human weakness. Human fear, to be precise. I am immortal, and I am eternal."** Nightmare laughed again. **"As for why, let's just say that your human friend has been a great irritation to me."**

"What did you do to Vincent?" Bonnie demanded, balling his hands.

 **"Nothing much. Just stole his soul and claimed his body as my own."** Nightmare examined his nails. **"Oh, and put him through incredible agony as I sliced through his spiritual form."**

This caused Bonnie to cry out in rage and launch himself at Nightmare. The immortal ducked under Bonnie's first swing, then drew a knife from somewhere on his person and stabbed it into the side of Bonnie's head. Then, faster than the eye could follow, he grabbed Bonnie's outstretched arm and twisted, launching the rabbit across the arcade and snapping his right arm off.

 **"Well, didn't expect it to be that easy."** The demonic creature commented.

"I'll make you pay for that, you twisted freak!" Bonnie shouted, pushing himself off the floor and launching himself at Nightmare again.

Nightmare hammered the knife into Bonnie's head, then slammed the handle away from him. The knife acted as a lever, causing Bonnie's face to rip off from the sheer force of the blow. **"Oh look! You're a faceless monster again!"** Then Nightmare grabbed the bent knife and stabbed it into the now exposed mechanisms inside Bonnie's head, causing the animatronic to fall to the ground with a horrific scream.

Freddy just watched in disbelief.

 **"I got something special for you Faz."** Nightmare cheerfully informed, pulling the pistol shotgun out of his pocket. **"Eat lead."**

Four shots fired off in quick succession, then there was the click of an unloaded gun. Freddy took all four shots in the chest, not flinching at all from the incredible force of the metal slugs hammering through his synthetic skin.

 **"Damn. This thing is useless on robots."** The human sighed.

"Then I guess it's my turn." Freddy replied, not showing the intense pain he was in. The bear moved with an agility that he shouldn't have had, jumping up on top of the arcade machines and blitzing towards Nightmare. With a grunt of anger, Freddy jumped from atop an arcade machine down onto the human, bringing his elbow down to crash into Nightmare's skull.

He hit the ground hard, making a solid dent in the floor.

 **"Clever. Fast too. But not enough."** Nightmare assessed from across the room. Somehow he had made his way to the arcade machine too quickly for Freddy to see.

The animatronic jumped to his feet and started rushing towards Nightmare.

In response, Nightmare shoulder tackled the arcade machine next to him. The machine slid several feet with a scream of metal on linoleum, revealing a screwdriver on the floor. The human stomped down on the screwdriver, launching it into the air. With deft movements, Nightmare caught and hurled the screwdriver in the same motion, causing it to lodge itself so deep in Freddy's eye that it sliced through the machine's motherboard.

Freddy skidded to a stop and collapsed, emitting the same tortured scream as Bonnie had.

 **"Wow. Didn't actually expect that to work."** The human muttered.

"Were ye expectin' this?"

Nightmare ducked, feeling sharp metal slice through the top of his scalp. **"Surprise attack? Not really your style fox."**

"My style doesn't matter in this fight, ye mangy devil."

 **"Shame your fight won't last long enough to be fun."**

As quick as lightning, Nightmare whirled around and plunged one of Vincent's long knives into Foxy's right eye, through the eyepatch. Foxy let out a scream of agony, his internal computers destroyed, and fell to the ground lifeless.

 **"And to think I expected you to put up the most fight."** Nightmare sounded disappointed. **"No matter."**

Nightmare walked nonchalantly out of the room, not seeing the three silhouettes floating out of the downed robots.

What he did see was the chicken and the rabbit directly in front of him.

Both of them had knives.

 **"Aww, that's so cute. The siblings think they can stop me with melee weapons."**

"They're not stupid, you know."

Vix dropped straight down on top of Nightmare, jaws gaping as she tried to chomp down on his already bleeding head.

Unfortunately, she met a knife on the way down.

The white vixen landed with a crash, her central processor already destroyed by the knife that Nightmare had pulled seemingly out of nowhere.

Then Ben and Tia struck.

Or tried to.

Nightmare ducked under Ben's swing while pushing Tia's swing upwards. Despite the fact that the two seemed to have some way to synchronize their attacks, they couldn't stop Nightmare from forcing the knives to end their paths in the other sibling's skull.

Two more tortured screams, two more down.

That was when Nightmare spotted the humans.

More specifically, when Fritz pressed the button on a device that he had made specifically to disable Vincent.

The signal of the device wasn't strong enough to effect a normal human brain, but with the metal skull that Vincent had, the effect was amplified. The end result was Nightmare, in Vincent's body, falling to his knees and grabbing his head in pain.

"Eat that you bastard." Fritz said, nearly emotionless.

 **"What doesn't kill you…"** Nightmare muttered, staggering up on one leg. **"Makes you STRONGER."**

With a cry of rage, Nightmare hurled his last knife, impaling the device and rendering it useless.

 **"What do you know. I'm stronger now."** The immortal puppeteer launched himself at Fritz, Percy, and Mike. Mike had a sledge hammer in his hands, while Percy had a shotgun, but they both seemed loath to use them.

Fortunately, they didn't have to.

A pair of golden furred arms grabbed Nightmare from behind. He didn't even know that this yellow animatronic had been alive, let alone that it had followed him. "Get out of here!"

 **"How the hell are you even ALIVE?!"** Nightmare roared, struggling in Spring's grip. The rabbit was unnaturally strong, even for a machine. Slamming his elbow into Spring's chest, he launched the rabbit backwards. For a fraction of a second, there was the feeling of something choking him, but it passed extremely quickly.

"Thanks Spring. I've got it from here."

 **"And now the golden freak. Great."** Nightmare rubbed his neck, noting the absence of the amulet.

Which immediately lead to him being pinned to the wall by an invisible force.

 **"So you're using magic? That's fair, considering I didn't."** Nightmare spat, struggling against Fredbear's telekinesis.

"On the contrary, you empowered Vincent's body with supernatural strength and speed" Goldie shot back, beginning to squeeze. "And much as I hate doing this, I'm going to have to kill you."

 **"That didn't work out so well against Springtrap, did it?"** Nightmare asked, a vicious grin growing on his face.

Goldie's eyes widened just as the telekinesis failed. Cutting off the flow of energy, the golden animatronic tried to teleport.

Tried to.

Nightmare launched a blast of lightning from his hands, frying Goldie's mechanisms. The voice box let out a tortured scream that was growing more and more familiar.

The human brushed himself off and looked around. The rabbit was gone, as were the three mortals. No matter. That haunted doll was his target.

Humming happily to himself, Nightmare started on his way to the Prize Corner.

Then a sledgehammer slammed into the side of his head.

 **"Oh… that would have hurt."** Nightmare muttered, stumbling sideways. Then the immortal used his momentum to whirl and glare at the light brown bear holding the weapon. **"If I was anyone else."**

"Can't blame me for trying, can you?" Theo asked, slowly circling Nightmare.

Chuckling, Nightmare circled the opposite way. **"I can't, not without discounting your will to get yourself killed."**

"I'm already dead. At least I can slow you down." Theodore replied.

 **"Damn. That's what you've been doing."** Nightmare stopped in his tracks. **"Stalling. Waiting for that doll to finish preparations to remove me."**

"Must say, you figured that out quickly." The bear commented.

 **"Not that difficult, now that I think about it…"** Nightmare responded, digging through Vincent's memories again. That one could come in handy... **"But I'm going to have to end you now."**

Moving with unrivalled speed, Nightmare rushed Theodore, slamming the heel of his hand into the bear's forehead. As Nightmare predicted, the head caved in, and the neck joint snapped. As per usual, the voice box let out one final scream.

 **"That noise is really getting annoying…"**

Nightmare continued into the Prize Corner. There was nothing left to stop it from trapping that damn clown indefinitely.

"Don't come any closer!"

…Except for the child.

 **"Oh. Balloon Boy."** Nightmare sighed. **"I won't lie, this is getting irritating."**

In a blur of movement, Nightmare grabbed Billy up by the neck and lifted him off the ground. **"Let's get this over with."**

Billy launched his right arm into Nightmare's arm, slapping him lightly. That would have been laughable, if it hadn't imparted a heavy electric shock that sent Nightmare into painful spasms.

 **"Y-you little punk. I'll kill you for that."** The immortal snarled, his eye twitching. Bringing his other hand around, he punched Billy in the face, caving his head in.

The last of the animatronics let out a scream, Nightmare dropping it to the ground. Taking a package out of his pocket, Nightmare started to sprinkle salt around the present box in the corner of the room.

 **"All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel. The monkey thought 'twas all in good fun…"** Nightmare sang mockingly. **"Oops. The weasel's dead. What a shame."**

Finishing the circle, Nightmare stood back, sensing the magic take place.

Then his heart stopped.

 **"What…? But… the memory…"**

 ** _"The memory lied, bastard."_**

The last thing Nightmare saw in Vincent's body was the Puppet slowly rising out of its box.

Then Vincent woke up.

His head was bleeding and probably bruised, he felt drained on a spiritual level, and his whole family had just been killed.

"Good. The swap worked." The Puppet observed, reaching down and pulling Vincent to his feet.

"You… swapped us?" Vincent asked, bewildered and confused.

"You are in control of it now." The supernatural doll explained. "Speaking of, how did it gain control in the first place?"

"I…" Vincent muttered, growing angry at himself. "I screwed up. I made a deal with it, and now I've paid the price. Now everyone is dead. All I can do is…"

"Is what?" The Puppet prodded, seeming oddly excited.

"Is say I'm sorry." Vincent looked directly into the Puppet's eyes, feeling very tired all of a sudden. "I'm sorry for everything."

The Puppet smiled kindly. "All is forgiven."

Vincent fell backwards, unable to stay conscious any longer. Ten silhouettes danced on the edge of his vision before rising up through the ceiling.

"Thank you, Vincent." The Puppet said sincerely, before falling limp.

The grey eyed man closed his eyes, drifting into a dreamless sleep.


	91. You're Not Alone

When Vincent slowly woke up, he felt three things.

Loss. Incredible loss. Something was missing, but he didn't know what it was.

Pain. Not physical, but emotional. Accompanying the immense loss of something missing.

Sorrow. He had caused his friends and family so, so much pain.

He sat upright and rubbed the back of his head. The inside of his mouth tasted horrible, like he had been asleep for a day. After the strain he had gone through, that wouldn't surprise him. There was some residual pain, although it was weird. It reminded Vincent of the few times he had been electrocuted. It always left him feeling… tingly. And it had hurt.

Looking around, he realized that he was actually in his room for once. Not to say he didn't like his room, but he was used to waking up in the Parts and Service room after something big happened. Like someone shooting him.

Searching his mind, Vincent found that the invasive presence of Nightmare was… altered. Like it was supposed to be there. Like Nightmare wasn't an invader and was instead an immigrant. It was oddly soothing, despite the fact that it scared Vincent that Nightmare was still there at all.

But Spring was missing.

The rabbit wasn't in his room, and he couldn't detect him mentally. Spring was probably not expecting him to be up so suddenly, but wouldn't he have been waiting?

Vincent slid his legs off of the bed and stood up, stumbling a bit. His legs were numb. Just how long had he been out? Certainly a long time.

The grey eyed man staggered out of his room and upstairs. To his surprise, there wasn't anyone there. No Mike, Percy, or Fritz to greet him this morning.

Was it even morning? Vincent didn't honestly know. His watch was still in his bedroom, and he hadn't checked his alarm clock.

He looked up at the clock in the Staff Lounge. 8:00. Was it A.M. or P.M.? It probably didn't matter.

Entering the Main stage area, he looked up at the stage. To his surprise, all three of the animatronics were there, in working condition. There was something… off, however. Regardless of it being morning or evening, they should have been out and about.

"Freddy?" Vincent mumbled, looking up at the bear.

No response.

Vincent sighed, walking over to his drawing table. He sat down and looked at his drawings. Aaron, Vi, Paul, the triplets, Connor, Tali, Azure, Matt, Tony, Barry, and Franklin. The ones who threw themselves into a combat they couldn't win just to give him a chance. Vincent sighed again.

"Oh, hey Vincent. I didn't expect you to be up yet."

The man looked up to see Jeremy. It was weird, seeing him as a living human. Not to mention the fact that Jeremy was still sixteen, or at least looked like it. He sighed and looked back at the drawings. "Hey Jeremy."

"It's not your fault, you know."

Vincent's head jerked sharply upwards. "What?"

"Them leaving. It's not your fault." Jeremy walked over and sat down across the table from Vincent. "If anything, you helped them in their goals."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you remember what your goal was when you were reanimated?" Jeremy asked suddenly.

"I was supposed to atone for my sins. But all I've done is hurt them more." Vincent answered, slamming his forehead down on the table. "I've failed miserably."

"On the contrary, you succeeded." Jeremy corrected. "You needed your victims, or at least the ones still lingering, to forgive you. Surprisingly, you encountered more than one of them when Nightmare tricked you into making a deal with it."

"You know about that?" Vincent questioned, surprised.

"Spring told me the whole story while you were out." Jeremy replied, shrugging. "He's sleeping right now. He's had a rough past couple days, what with you being out for almost forty-eight hours. Not to mention the fact that Nightmare broke his leg when it slammed him into the wall."

Vincent flinched. Jeremy took notice and sighed. "You can't blame yourself for this Vincent. You didn't do anything."

"You said that I needed all of my victims to forgive me, but what does that mean?" Vincent asked with a sigh.

"Let me go through this whole thing. In order to be free from the mortal realm, a spirit needs to let go of its emotions, its hate. In my case, I could go any time I wanted. But I don't want to go, because that would leave you, Percy, Fritz, Mike, and now Spring behind. Shane and Sean could go too, but they have too much fun just goofing around." Jeremy explained. "The Puppet, on the other hand, had to stay here. At some point after your resurrection, it finally let go of its hate, but it wanted to hear one more thing before it left. See, the other spirits, the other ten children who died, are not in the animatronics by choice. The Puppet bound them to the animatronics. Without that link, the spirits would be able to leave the mortal world once they forgave you. When you finally apologized, for everything, the Puppet released its hold on the world. They all passed on."

That's when it hit him. They were gone, gone for good. With tears in his eyes, Vincent continued onwards. "And what about you? You're another one of my victims, although indirectly."

Jeremy smiled. "I'll be honest, at first I hated you. I thought you didn't deserve a second chance. But as time passed, I found out that you aren't a bad guy. Sure, you're irritating at times, and you have a habit of using knives to solve your problems, but you're a normal person. Just like the rest of us."

The red head yawned suddenly, stretching and closing his eyes. "Oh man, I'm exhausted. Don't think I can keep up this form change much longer without passing out."

"Then don't." Vincent said, as if the answer was obvious.

"'snot that simple." Jeremy muttered. "My normal form isn't exactly… something I'm proud of."

"I'm not proud of anything I've done." Vincent replied.

"Just…" Jeremy sighed. "Don't freak out."

The teen's body began to shimmer, then change. Ears grew out of the top of his head, and his eyes darkened while the pupils grew whiter. His skin tone darkened to a shadow-like quality, while his whole form contorted and changed. As his body altered, Jeremy grabbed the wall with both hands. Before long, his entire form was like a mangled mess of metal; but instead of actual metal, he was made up of dark shadows. The only part of him that wasn't made of shadows were his eyes and teeth, which both glowed white.

In other words, he looked like a shadow version of the old toy Foxy, after it had become known as the Mangle.

"Well?" Jeremy asked nervously, hanging from the ceiling.

"It could be worse." Vincent said honestly.

"Umm…" Jeremy scratched the top of his head. The fox head looked like it was plastic, but it lacked some of the features of toy Foxy. Such as the blush and lipstick, as well as the eyelashes. "How?"

"You're asking someone who has spent the past week being haunted by his nightmares, quite literally might I add, how you could look worse. Are you sure you want an answer?" Vincent stated flatly.

After pondering for a moment, Jeremy shook his head. "Nah."

"So…" Vincent started, going back to the topic of what had happened. "What did the Puppet do?"

"It swapped you and Nightmare. Instead of Nightmare controlling your body and soul, you control Nightmare's body and soul. Except, you know, Nightmare has no body." Jeremy replied.

"Does that mean I command Nightmare?" Vincent asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. It's pretty cool." Jeremy answered with a grin.

Vincent concentrated. _Nightmare?_

There was no response, but Vincent felt that it was more because the other party refused to answer than anything else. It wasn't a case of nobody being there, and more a case of nobody answering.

"What happened to Mike Fritz and Percy?"

"Oh, they've been working nonstop to get the animatronics back into working condition." Jeremy answered. "Fritz and Mike are in the Parts and Service room fixing them up, while Percy is doing missed paperwork. We've been shut down for a couple days now."

"Probably my fault." Vincent muttered, standing up. "I need to go be by myself for a little while."

Vincent stood up and walked off, lost in his thoughts. They had shut down for a couple days, but Nightmare was now under his control. That would mean that Nightmare was no longer an issue. Period. That was something that made Vincent feel at least a bit better.

He found himself in the Prize Corner. The Puppet's box was open. Vincent walked over to the box and looked inside. There was the Puppet, lying limp in the box, its limbs folded so that it could fit easily. Vincent reached down and touched its mask. It was locked in the same smiling position that the Marionette was iconic for.

At Vincent's touch, the mask fell off of the Puppet's head. Vincent picked the mask up and held it in his hands, gently stroking the smooth porcelain.

To Vincent's surprise, a droplet of water fell on to the white porcelain.

With the mask in one hand, the man reached up to his face, surprised at his own tears. For the first time in almost thirty years, he was crying. Not sobbing or tearing up, but full on crying.

He pulled the mask close to his chest and cried. He cried all of his sorrows out. He cried for his friends, who had paid for his foolishness. He cried for his family, and how they were gone forever.

Because that was who they were now. Vincent fully accepted this. The animatronics had been his family, and now they were gone.

 _"Hush, little baby don't say a word,_

 _"Mary's gonna buy you a mockingbird._

 _"And if that mockingbird don't sing,_

 _"Mary's gonna buy you a diamond ring._

 _"And if that diamond ring turns brass,_

 _"Mary's gonna buy you a looking glass._

 _"And should that looking glass be crushed,_

 _"Mary's gonna buy you a Fredbear plush."_

Vincent looked up in surprise. That voice was familiar. That was the voice that had sung for him when Nightmare had attacked the first time. The voice that had calmed him.

He nearly jumped when a hand gently rested on his shoulder.

 _"If that Fredbear plush gets lost,_

 _"Mary's gonna buy you a music box._

 _"As that music box goes tick,_

 _"Mary's gonna show you a new Puppet…"_

Vincent turned his head to see a pair of bright purple eyes.

"You don't need to cry." Marion said softly, her eyes having regained their true color. "We're here for you."

Vincent's eyes turned to the other ten spirits in the room, and his tears turned to those of joy. "Thank you. Thank you for giving me a second chance."

* * *

 **Thank you all for reading 'A Second Chance'.**

 **This is the last chapter, and as much as I hate to say it, the end of the story. It's been gratifying, how much support you all have given me; I never intended for this to be much more than a dopey little story where the purple guy comes back to life. After a while it just... snowballed, into what it is anyone expecting a sad ending, I can't do those. I can't.**

 **I'm certain you people have a lot of questions, so now I'm going to answer them. If you have a question I didn't answer, please leave a review or P M me, as I will not be posting more to the story. If you review with a question, please, PLEASE, have an account. It can be a little frustrating to be unable to answer someone's questions.**

 **This is an AU, which means alternate universe. It's got some things that are different from the official FNaF canon, and I call the shots on the rules in this version of the world.**

 **Now then, about this chapter and the last one. I didn't want to put an author's note last chapter because it would ruin the mood. I made sure to get this chapter out as soon as I could, so as to be able to have a sort of conjoined author's note.**

 **Spring is the only reason Nightmare didn't know about the salt circle's effect of killing Vincent. He altered Vincent's memory to hide it.**

 **I initially intended to reveal Jeremy's actual form last chapter, with Nightmare draining energy from him until he reverted. I wound up forgetting and put it in this chapter instead.**

 **Mary/Marion is the Puppet. Or rather, the girl who possessed the Puppet. She's grown up quite a lot since then.**

 **As for the spirits returning, they are free to leave. And they did. But they are also free to return.**

 **Nightmare is currently trapped within Vincent's mind and soul. It still has power over Vincent's dreams, and the dream realm, but nothing else. With specific exceptions.**

 **If anyone were to draw fanart for this story, I would not have any objections.**

 **I am planning to have a sequel. Just... be patient. I've decided to label this AU "Ghost Magics", because there's so much in this world that isn't specifically FNaF. I'm also going to have a series of oneshots called "Sometimes Things Happen", where I put holiday specials and fan suggested scenarios. Just don't send me suggestions until I actually get the first chapter up. I'm not working on anything else in this AU for a little while.**

 **Instead, I'm going to write some Pokemon. Look for 'With Sword in Hand', it should be out in the next couple days.**

 **With that, thank you again for reading my story, and have a wonderful day.**

 **BewareTheDragon out.**


	92. One-shots Announcement

Just a heads-up to everyone!

I have the one-shot series Sometimes Things Happen up, as well as the first chapter.

Some important things to note:

1\. Some chapters are canon to the Ghost Magics story, others are not.

2\. The one-shots can be at any point in the timeline. This will make more sense eventually.

3\. You guys can send in ideas and chapters, but only if you have an account. Do NOT submit it as review, instead PM me if you want me to write a chapter with a specific basis.

With that said, have a wonderful day, and read on!


	93. Soul Without Life

**What? What's this? Is Beware writing FNaF again? At long last, will we get the sequel to A Second Chance?**

 **The answer's yes, by the way.**

 **The whole gang'll be back, along with more than a few new characters. Yes, quite a lot of them are OCs, but to be honest there are only, like, four characters in the FNaF gameverse that have personality anyways. Someone's interpretation of the characters is basically an OC anyways. And, let us not forget, this is an AU. It doesn't even adhere to the game lore.**

 **Now then, without further ado, let's get on to the teaser.**

 **Edit: It's already out! Check out Soul Without Life.**

* * *

 _"Welcome to the Armory Arcade! Home of fun, games, and our iconic animatronic characters! Join Draco the dragon, Pharra the phoenix, King Arthur, and the knights Gawain and Lance in great fun on the show floor! But don't go into the dungeon, or-"_

 _FSSSHHHHZZ_

 _"-So enjoy your stay as night guard, here at the Armory Arcade!_

 _"ArmoryArcadeisnotresponsibleforanyinjury,lostproperty,mentaltrauma,ordeath."_

 _FSHT._

Terry stared at the small television screen for a moment and blinked. "What."

Before he could ponder what was just said any further, though, the screen blinked back to life. A scruffy middle-aged man was on-screen, replacing the colorful and dishonest commercial from a moment ago. He glanced to the sides of the screen, then leaned close. _"Alright, so you probably already hate this job just 'cause of that stupid ad, right? But you're here, and leaving is probably more dangerous than staying."_

The man glanced around again, then reached over and pushed a button. _"I'm sitting where you are right now, although by this point I'm either dead or left. Probably dead. My goal here is to make sure you don't wind up that way. Little reprogramming here, a little video camera there, and suddenly you've got a functioning tutorial for the new guy, as opposed to the stupid shit they had when I showed up._

 _"But enough complaining. You want to know why I'm talking to you, and without a doubt you haven't got a clue as to what's going on. I'll lay it out plain and simple."_ The man leaned forwards and stared at the grainy screen, seeming to see beyond it to Terry. _"The robots are going to try and kill you. There's something real, real wrong with 'em, and it's terrifying. I'll go through 'em one by one, hopefully you can remember what the damn things do."_

Static overtook the screen, then the main stage appeared. Standing there were the two main mascots, the dragon and the phoenix. _"First is the lizard. Dunno why one of the eyes is always lit up, but it makes the thing easier to see. You've probably seen the light button on the camera controls. Don't use it when this guy's in the room you're watching. Light makes it spaz, or something, and it just moves faster. You can't really miss it when it shows up at the door, which helps 'cause you gotta immediately close the grate. Turn the light on, and it'll dash in._

 _"Then there's the bird. It's sneaky as hell, and tends to follow the dragon around. It'll back off if you shine the light on it, same kind of glitch. But the real problem is that it's_ fast _. Like, real fast. Dunno how it moves that fast with that stupid as hell design, but it does. Don't try to slam the door on it, it'll dash through before the grate closes."_

The screen flickered with static again, this time resolving on the side room that was inhabited by a trio of suits of armor. A large circular area in the center of the floor was clear of any obstruction, and half of its edge was made up of benches and chairs. _"Then there's the knights. Lance is the one in red and black, Gawain is in blue and white. They both move at the same time, so it's easy to find the other if you can find one. The problem is that they both show up at the doors at the same time too. If you see one at your door, close both doors. Checking the other door is a death sentence._

 _"Arthur's the real problem though. Hulking thing was nailed to the chair by management to keep it from acting up during the day, too. It'll usually sit in that chair, but if it does move, you need,_ need _, to keep the camera on it. Don't bother to check the others, you can take care of them with your doors and lights. Something about Arthur's armor makes it so that the thing amplifies the signal from your camera, causing the robotics to freeze up."_

The screen flickered one last time, this time resolving on a room that wasn't on the maps. It was an old storage chamber, filled with decaying boxes and props. In one corner a humanoid figure sat slumped, its cowled black robe keeping it hidden. Bones were littered all around the figure. Terry fervently hoped they were Styrofoam. _"Then there's this thing. Used to be called 'Duncan the Dungeonkeeper', but then the face fell off and the endoskeleton began to spasm at random. I call it the wraith now. They put it in the storage room and hoped people would forget about it, which is probably why they keep finding bones in the storage room. Real bones. Dunno where the skin and blood and organs go, but all that's ever left are the bones. Check on it often. Really often. Shine your light. If it starts to move, shine your light more. It'll be hell on the electrical bill, but it's cheaper than a funeral. If that thing moves while Arthur's out of its chair, just run. Set the cameras to Arthur and run. Can't outrun Arthur, as big as it is, but hopefully you can outrun the wraith and the others."_

After a moment of hesitation, the man glanced around. _"Gotta go. Midnight just struck, both for you and me. Watch the wraith, check on Arthur, remember your lights, and only worry about the knights when one is at your door. Good luck."_

 _Click._

After a second, the television turned back on, this time as a camera display system.

And all Terry could do was say one thing.

"What."


End file.
